LIBRARY 

OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA. 


Class 


LIBRARY 

OF  THE 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA. 


Class 


PRICE,     TWENTY-FIVE     CENTS. 


SERIAL.  August,  1861. 


DEVOTED    TO 


Sermons,  Orations,  Lectures,  Popular  Correspondence,  &c. 


THE 


CIVIL  WAR  IN  AMERICA ; 


BY 


WM.   H.   RUSSELL,   LL.D., 


Special  Correspondent  of  the  London  Times. 


BOSTON: 
GARDNER  A.  FULLER,   112  WASHINQTON  STREET. 

:   Trubner  &  Co.,  60  Paternoster  Row. 


SI   T   33   IE*.   33   O   I1   Y   JF»   IB! 


No.  TWO  WILL  CONTAIN  A  SECOND  SERIES  OF  MR.  RUSSELL'S 
LETTERS.      A  LIBERAL  DISCOUNT  TO  THE  TRADE.  *&& 


CAMBRIDGE,     MASS.: 

MILES     &      DILLINO-HAM, 

Printers  and  Stcreotypers. 


THE 


CIVIL    WAR 


AMERICA: 


BY 

WM.  H.    RUSSELL,  LL.D., 

SPECIAL    CORRESPONDENT     OF     THE 

TI3UCES. 


BOSTON: 
A  R  DN  E  R     A.     FULLER, 

No.   112  Washington  Street. 


fi 


THE   MODERN    AGE. 


IN  presenting  the  first  number  of  the  Modern  Jlge  to  the  public,  I 
have  selected  the  letters  of  Mr.  Russell,  deeming  them  the  most  appro 
priate  topic  for  the  times,  and  worthy  of  an  extensive  circulation. 

That  these  letters  are  written  by  the  most  interesting  correspondent 
of  the  largest,  ablest,  and  most  influential  paper  in  the  world,  is  suffi 
cient  proof  of  their  merits,  and  that  they  coine  to  us  "  well  recom 
mended  and  properly  vouched  for." 

The  universal  "desire  for  more  light"  in  regard  to  affairs  in  the 
South,  will  find  abundant  satisfaction  in  this  brilliant  and  talented 
correspondence  of  a  writer,  whose  chirographical  experience  in  the 
Crimean  war,  has  so  eminently  fitted  him  «*  to  render  a  fair  and  im 
partial  account  "  of  the  Civil  War  in  America. 

Number  two  of  the  Modern  Age  will  contain  another  serial  of  Mr. 
Russell's  letters,  at  the  close  of  which  I  shall  introduce  popular  Orations 
and  occasional  ,§e,rrnons  from  our  most  eminent  Divines.  The  princi 
pal  design  of  this  wo'rk  is  to  preserve  i'o  ,the  most  convenient  form  the 
best  thoughts,  fresh  from  the  lips  of  our  most  gifted  men  :  its  peculiar 
character  will  prevent  a  regular  monthly  publication;  yet  I  hope  to 
be  able  from  the  many  reports,  to  elect  twelve  in  the  course  of  a  year. 
No  pains  will  be  spared  in  my  endeavors  to  make  it  the  best  and  most 
attractive  work  of  its  kind  in  the  country,  and  I  trust  it  will  meet 
with  much  favor  at  the  hands  of  a  generous  public. 

G.  A.    FULLER. 


THE 

CIVIL  WAR  IN   AMERICA. 


LETTER     I. 

WASHINGTON,  March  29,  1861. 

IF  the  intelligent  foreigner,  who  is  supposed  to  make  so 
many  interesting  and  novel  observations  on  the  aspect  of 
tho  countries  he  visits,  and  on  the  manners  of  the  people 
among  whom  he  travels,  were  to  visit  the  United  States  at 
this  juncture,  he  would  fail  to  detect  any  marked  indication 
of  the  extraordinary  crisis  which  agitates  the  members  of 
the  Great  Republic,  either  at  the  principal  emporium  of  its 
commerce,  or  at  the  city  which  claims  to  be  the  sole  seat  of 
its  Government.  Accustomed  to  the  manifestation  of  violent 
animosity  and  great  excitement  among  the  nations  of  Eu 
rope  during  political  convulsions,  he  would  be  struck  with 
astonishment,  if  not  moved  to  doubt,  when,  casting  his  eyes 
on  the  columns  of  the  multitudinous  journals  which  swarm 
from  every  printing-press  in  the  land,  he  read  that  the 
United  States  were  in  such  throes  of  mortal  agony,  that 
those  who  knew  the  constitution  of  the  patient  best,  were 
scarce  able  to  prophesy  any  result  except  final  dissolution. 
It  would  require  such  special  acquaintance  as  only  those 
well  versed  in  the  various  signs  and  forms  of  the  dangerous 
influences  which  are  at  work  can  possess,  to  appreciate  from 
anything  to  be  seen  at  New  York  or  Washington,  the  fact 
that  the  vast  body  politic  which  sprang  forth  with  the  thews 
and  sinews  of  a  giant  from  the  womb  of  rebellion  and  revolu 
tion  ;  which  claimed  half  the  New  World  as  its  heritage,  and 
reserved  the  other  as  the  certain  reward  of  future  victory  ; 
which  extended  its  commerce  over  every  sea,  and  affronted  the 
antiquity  of  international  law  by  bold  innovations  and  defiant 
enumerations  of  new  principles  ;  which  seemed  to  revel  in 

225768 


4  TH^    C'YIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA. 

success  of  doctrines  that  the  experience  of  the  Old  World 
aad  proved  to  be  MPtenable,  or  had  rejected  as  unsuited  to 
the  government  of  mankind  ;  which  had  developed  all  the 
resources  of  the  physical  agencies  in  manufactures,  machin 
ery,  electricity,  and  steam,  that  could  give  strength,  and 
wealth,  and  vigor  to  its  frame  ;  —  that  this  mighty  Confed 
eration  should  suddenly  be  smitten  with  a  desire  to  tear 
its  limbs  asunder,  and  was  only  restrained  by  the  palsy 
that  had  smitten  some  of  jits  members.  Certainly  no  notion 
of  the  kind  could  be  formed  from  actual  observation  of  the 
words  and  deeds  of  men  in  the  cities  I  have  visited,  or  from 
any  source  of  information,  except  the  casual  conversations 
of  fellow  travellers,  or  the  startling  headings  in  the  news 
papers,  which  have,  however,  reduced  "  sensation "  para 
graphs  and  lines  to  such  cvery-day  routine,  that  the  Ameri 
can  is  no  more  affected  by  them  than  the  workman  in  the 
proof-house  is  moved  by  the  constant  explosion  of  cannon. 
We  are  accustomed  to  think  the  Americans  a  very  excitable 
people ;  their  personal  conflicts,  their  rapid  transitions  of 
feeling,  the  accounts  of  their  public  demonstrations,  their 
energetic  expressions,  their  love  of  popular  assemblies,  and 
the  cultivation  of  the  arts,  which  excite  their  passions,  are 
favorable  to  that  notion.  But  New  York  seems  full  of 
divine  calm  and  human  phlegm.  A  panic  in  Wall  Street 
would,  doubtless,  create  greater  external  disturbance  than 
seemed  to  me  to  exist  in  its  streets  and  pleasant  mansions. 
No  doubt  there  is,  and  must  be,  very  great  agitation  of 
feeling,  and  much  apprehension ;  but  to  the  stranger  they 
are  not  very  patent  or  visible.  An  elegant  refinement, 
which  almost  assumes  the  airs  of  pococuranteism,  reigns  in 
society,  only  broken  by  the  vehement  voices  of  female 
patriotism,  or  the  denunciations  addressed  against  the  pro 
visions  of  a  tariff,  which  New  York  seems  unanimous  in 
regarding  with  hostility  and  dismay.  If  Home  be  burning, 
there  are  hundreds  of  noble  Romans  fiddling  away  in  the 
Fifth  Avenue,  and  in  its  dependencies,  quite  satisfied  that 
they  cannot  join  any  of  the  fire  companies,  and  that  they 
are  not  responsible  for  the  deeds  of  the  "  Nero  "  or  "  anti- 
Nero  "  who  applied  the  torch.  They  marry,  and  are  given 
in  marriage  ;  they  attend  their  favorite  theatres,  dramatic 
or  devotional,  as  the  case  may  be,  in  the  very  best  coats  or 
bonnets  ;  they  eat  the  largest  oysters,  drink  the  best  wines, 
and  enjoy  the  many  goods  the  gods  provide  them,  unmoved 
by  the  daily  announcement  that  Fort  Sumter  is  evacuated, 


THE    CIVIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA.  5 

that  the  South  is  arming,  and  the  Morrill  tariff  is  ruining 
the  trade  of  the  country.  And,  as  they  say,  "  What  can 
we  do  ?  "  "  We  are,"  they  insinuate,  "  powerless  to  avert 
the  march  of  events.  We  think  everybody  is  wrong.  Things 
were  going  on  very  pleasantly  when'  these  Abolitionists  dis 
turbed  the  course  of  trade,  and  commerce,  and  speculation 
with  their  furious  fantasies ;  and  now  the  South,  availing 
themselves  of  the  opportunity  which  the  blindness  of  their 
enemies  has  afforded  them  to  do  what  they  have  wished  in 
their  hearts  for  many  a  year,  start  in  business  for  them 
selves,  and  will  not  be  readily  brought  back  by  the  lure  of 
any  concession  till  they  find  they  are  unable  to  get  money 
to  pay  their  way,  and  resort  to  measures  which  may  be 
ruinous  to  capital,  or  lead  to  reconstruction  of  the  Con 
federation  on  both  sides," 

If,  pursuing  the  researches  which  such  remarks  suggest, 
an  investigation  is  made  in  the  same  stratum  of  thought  by 
careful  exploration,  it  will  not  be  long  before  the  miner 
comes  upon  matters  which  he  never  could  have  expected  to 
find  in  that  particular  gallery.  What  are  the  most  cherished 
institutions  of  the  Great  Republic  ?  If  the  intelligent 
foreigner  were  asked  what  were  the  fundamental  principles 
which,  guaranteed  by,  and  guaranteeing,  their  Constitution, 
the  people  of  the  United  States  admired  the  most,  he  would 
probably  reply,  "  Universal  suffrage  (with  its  incidental 
exercise  of  vote  by  ballot),  free  citizenship,  a  free  press." 
Probably  he  would  answer  correctly  in  the  main,  for  he 
would  know  more  of  the  matter  than  I  do ;  but  if  he  visited 
New  York  for  a  few  days,  what  would  be  his  amazement  to 
see  his  best  friends  shake  their  heads  at  the  very  mention  of 
these  grand  Shibboleths  !  How  would  his  faith  be  disturbed 
when  he  learnt  from  some  merchant  prince  that  universal 
suffrage,  in  its  practical  working  in  that  city,  had  handed  over 
the  municipal  government  to  the  most  ignorant,  if  not  the 
most  unprincipled  men ;  that  it  flooded  and  submerged  the 
landmarks  of  respectability  and  station  by  a  tide  of  bar 
barous  immigrant  foreigners  ;  that  the  press  had  substituted 
licentiousness  for  liberty  ;  and  that  the  evils  done  in  New 
York  by  these  agencies  afflicted  the  whole.  State  !  Ingenious 
theorists  might  attempt  to  convince  him  that  the  effect  of 
these  mischievous  elements  had  been  felt  at  the  very  centre 
of  the  social  system,  and  had  led  to  the  separation  which, 
be  it  temporary  or  permanent,  all  Northern  Americans  de 
plore.  Few,  however,  would  admit  that  the  failure  of 
1* 


6  THE    CIVIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA. 

Republican  institutions  is  by  any  means  involved  in  the 
disasters  which  have  fallen  on  the  Commonwealth,  even 
when  they  freely  confess  that  they  desire  to  modify  the 
Constitution,  while  they  lament  the  impossibility  of  doing 
so  in  consequence  of  the  very  condition  of  things  it  has 
created.  It  is  my  firm  conviction,  forced  on  my  mind  by 
the  words  of  many  men  of  note  with  whom  I  have  spoken, 
that  they  would  gladly,  if  they  could,  place  some  limits  to 
their  own  liberties  as  far  as  their  fellow-men  are  concerned, 
and  that  they  begin  to  doubt  whether  a  Constitution  founded 
on  abstract  principles  of  the  equality  of  mankind  can  be 
worked  out  in  huge  cities  —  veritable  cloaca  gentium  — 
however  successful  it  was  in  the  earlier  days  of  the  Republic, 
and  as  it  is  in  the  sparsely  inhabited  rural  districts  where 
every  inhabitant  represents  property.  These  men  may  be 
a  small  minority,  but  they  certainly  represent  great  wealth, 
much  ability,  and  high  intelligence  in  the  State  of  which  I 
speak.  They  assert  there  is  no  recuperative  power  in  the 
Constitution.  The  sick  physician  cannot  heal  himself,  for 
he  has  caused  his  own  illness,  and  a  Convention,  the  great 
nostrum  of  the  fathers  of  the  Republic,  is  only  an  appeal 
from  Philip  drunk  to  Philip  mad.  "  VoJumus  leges  America 
mutari"  is  their  despairing  aspiration,  and  they  justify  the 
wish  by  contrasts  between  the  state  of  things  which  existed 
when  the  Constitution  was  prepared  for  the  thirteen  Con 
federated  States  and  that  which  prevails  at  the  present  time, 
when  thirty-four  States,  some  two  or  three  of  which  are 
equal  to  the  original  Republic,  and  many  of  which  declare 
they  are  absolute  sovereignties ;  which  have  absorbed  all 
the  nomads  of  the  Old  World,  with  a  fair  proportion  of 
Genghis  Khans,  Attilas,  and  Timours  in  embryo,  present  a 
spectacle  which  the  most  sagacious  of  the  framcrs  of  the 
original  compact  never  could  have  imagined.  They  are 
impatient  of  the  ills  they  have,  and  are  somewhat  indiffer 
ent  to  the  wondrous  and  magnificent  results  in  material 
prosperity  and  intellectual  development  which  the  old  sys 
tem  either  promoted  or  caused.  New  York,  however,  would 
do  anything  rather  than  fight ;  her  delight  is  to  eat  her 
bread  and  honey,  and  count  her  dollars,  in  peace.  The 
vigorous,  determined  hostility  of  the  South  to  her  commer 
cial  eminence,  is  met  by  a  sort  of  maudlin  sympathy  without 
any  action,  or  intention  to  act.  The  only  matter  in  which 
the  great  commercial  aristocracy  take  any  interest  is  the 
Morrill  tariff,  which  threatens  to  inflict  on  them  the  most 


THE    CIVIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA.  7 

serious  losses  and  calamity.  There  is  a  general  expectation 
that  an  extra  Session  of  Congress  will  be  called  to  amend 
the  obnoxious  measure  ;  and  it  is  asserted  that  the  necessity 
for  such  a  Session  is  imperious  ;  but,  so  far  as  I  can  judge, 
all  such  hopes  will  be  disappointed.  There  is  no  desire  at 
Washington  to  complicate  matters  by  stormy  debates,  and 
the  statesmen  so  recently  elevated  to  power  are  sufficiently 
well  read  in  general  and  in  national  history  to  know  that 
extraordinary  Parliaments  are  generally  the  executioners  of 
those  who  call  them.  The  representatives  of  the  great 
protected  interests  at  the  capital  deny  that  the  tariff  will 
have  the  injurious  effects  attributed  to  it,  or  that  it  augments 
to  any  very  grievous  extent  the  burdens  of  the  New  Yorkers 
or  of  the  foreign  manufacturers.  Even  if  it  does,  they  de 
clare  that  protection  is  necessary.  The  ingenious  proposals 
to  evade  the  operation  of  the  tariff  by  a  jugglery  of  cargoes 
between  the  Southern  and  Northern  ports  will,  they  say,  be 
frustrated  by  the  more  rigid  application  of  the  Revenue 
and  Customs'  system,  out  of  which  most  serious  complica 
tions  must  inevitably  arise  at  no  distant  period.  While  at 
New  York  all  is  calm  doubtfulness  or  indolent  anticipation, 
at  Washington  there  is  excitement  and  activity.  The  aris 
tocracy  of  New  York  has  yielded  itself  unresistingly  to  a 
tyranny  it  hates ;  it  cannot  wield  at  will  the  fierce  democ 
racy,  and  it  abandons  all  efforts  to  control  it,  forgetting  the 
abundant  proofs  in  every  history  of  the  power  of  genius, 
wealth,  and  superior  intelligence  to  control  the  heavier 
masses,  however  wild  and  difficult  of  approach. 

At  Washington  there  is  at  this  moment  such  a  ferment  as 
no  other  part  of  the  world  could  exhibit  —  a  spectacle  which 
makes  one  wonder  that  any  man  can  be  induced  to  seek  for 
office,  or  that  any  Government  can  be  conducted  under  such 
a  system.  The  storm  which  rolled  over  the  capital  has,  I 
am  told,  subsided  ;  but  the  stranger,  unaccustomed  to  such 
tempestuous  zones,  thinks  the  gale  is  quite  strong  enough 
even  in  its  diminished  intensity.  All  the  hotels  are  full  of 
keen  gray-eyed  men,  who  fondly  believe  their  destiny  is  to 
fill  for  four  years  some  pet  appointment  under  Government. 
The  streets  are  crowded  with  them  ;  the  steamers  and  the 
railway  carriages,  the  public  departments,  the  steps  of  the 
senators'  dwellings,  the  lobbies  of  houses,  the  President's 
mansion,  are  crowded  with  them.  From  all  parts  of  the 
vast  Union,  not  even  excepting  the  South,  they  have  come 
fast  as  steam  or  wind  and  waves  could  bear  them  to  concen- 


8  THE    CIVIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA. 

trate  in  one  focus  on  the  devoted  head  of  the  President  all 
the  myriad  influences  which,  by  letter,  testimonial,  personal 
application,  unceasing  canvass,  and  sleepless  solicitation, 
they  can  collect  together. 

Willard's  Hotel,  a  huge  caravanserai,  is  a  curious  study 
of  character  and  institutions.  Every  form  of  speech  and 
every  accent  under  which  the  English  tongue  can  be  recog 
nized,  rings  through  the  long  corridors  in  tones  of  expostula 
tion,  anger,  or  gratification.  Crowds  of  long-limbed,  nerv 
ous,  eager-looking  men,  in  loose  black  garments,  undulating 
shirt  collars,  vast  conceptions  in  hatting  and  booting,  angu 
lar  with  documents  and  pregnant  with  demand,  throng  every 
avenue,  in  spite  of  the  printed  notices  directing  them  "  to 
move  on  from  front  of  the  cigar-stand."  They  are  "  sena 
tor  hunters,"  and  every  senator  has  a  clienteUe  more  numer 
ous  than  the  most  popular  young  Roman  noble  who  ever 
sauntered  down  the  Via  Sacra.  If  one  of  them  ventures 
out  of  cover,  the  cry  is  raised,  and  he  is  immediately  run 
to  earth.  The  printing-presses  are  busy  with  endless  copies 
of  testimonials,  which  are  hurled  at  everybody  with  reckless 
profusion. 

The  writing-room  of  the  hotel  is  full  of  people  preparing 
statements  or  writing  for  "  more  testimonials,"  demanding 
more  places,  or  submitting  "  extra  certificates."  The  bar 
room  is  fall  of  people  inspiring  themselves  with  fresh  confi 
dence,  or  engaged  in  plots  to  surprise  some  place  or  find 
one  out;  and  the  ladies  who  are  connected  with  members 
of  the  party  in  power  find  themselves  the  centres  of  irresist 
ible  attraction.  "  Sir,"  said  a  gentleman  to  whom  1  had 
letters  of  introduction,  "  I  know  you  must  be  a  stranger, 
because  you  did  not  stop  me  to  present  these  letters  in  the 
street." 

At  the  head  of  the  list  of  persecuted  men  is  the  President 
himself.  Every  one  has  a  right  to  walk  into  the  White 
House,  which  is  the  President's  private  as  well  as  his  official 
residence.  Mr.  Lincoln  is  actuated  by  the  highest  motives 
in  the  distribution  of  office.  All  the  vast  patronage  of  tens 
of  thousands  of  places,  from  the  highest  to  the  lowest,  is 
his  ;  and,  instead  of  submitting  the  various  claims  to  the 
heads  of  departments,  the  President  seeks  to  investigate 
them,  and  to  see  all  the  candidates.  Even  his  iron  frame 
and  robust  constitution  are  affected  by  the  process,  which 
lasts  all  day,  and  is  not  over  in  the  night  or  in  the  morning. 
The  particular  formula  which  he  has  adopted  to  show  the 


THE    CIVIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA.  9 

impossibility  of  satisfying  everybody  is  by  no  means  accepted 
by  anybody  who  is  disappointed.  What  is  the  use  of  tell 
ing  a  man  he  can't  have  a  place  because  a  hundred  others 
are  asking  for  it,  if  that  man  thinks  he  is  the  only  one  who 
has  a  right  to  get  it  ? 

At  the  very  moment  when  the  President  and  his  Cabinet 
should  be  left  undisturbed  to  deal  with  the  tremendous 
questions  which  have  arisen  for  their  action,  the  roar  of 
office  seekers  dins  every  sense,  and  almost  annihilates  them. 
The  Senate,  which  is  now  sitting  merely  to  confirm  appoint 
ments,  relieving  the  monotony  of  executive  reviews  with 
odd  skirmishes  between  old  political  antagonists  now  and 
then,  will,  it  is  said,  rise  this  week.  Around  their  chamber 
is  the  ever-recurring  question  heard,  "  Who  has  got  what  ?  " 
and  the  answer  is  never  satisfactory  to  all.  This  hunting 
after  office,  which  destroys  self-respect  when  it  is  the  mov 
ing  motive  of  any  considerable  section  of  a  great  party,  is 
an  innovation  which  was  introduced  by  General  Jackson ; 
but  it  is  likely  to  be  as  permanent  as  the  Republic,  inasmuch 
as  no  candidate  dares  declare  hfs  intention  of  reverting  to 
the  old  system.  These  "spoils,"  as  they  are  called,  are  now 
being  distributed  by  two  Governments  —  the  de  jure  and 
de  facto  Government  of  Washington,  and  the  Government 
erected  by  the  Southern  States  at  Montgomery. 

It  is  difficult  for  one  who  has  arrived  so  recently  in  this 
country,  and  who  has  been  subjected  to  such  a  variety  of 
statements  to  come  to  any  very  definite  conclusion  in  refer 
ence  to  the  great  questions  which  agitate  it.  But  as  far  as 
I  can  I  shall  form  my  opinions  from  what  I  see,  and  not 
from  what  I  hear  ;  and  as  I  shall  proceed  South  in  a  few 
days,  there  is  a  probability  of  my  being  able  to  ascertain 
what  is  the  real  state  of  affairs  in  that  direction.  As  far  as 
I  can  judge  —  my  conclusion,  let  it  be  understood,  being 
drawn  from  the  prevailing  opinions  of  others  —  "  the  South 
will  never  go  back  into  the  Union."  On  the  same  day  I 
heard  a  gentleman  of  position  among  the  Southern  party 
say,  "  No  concession,  no  compromise,  nothing  that  can  be 
done  or  suggested,  shall  induce  us  to  join  any  Confederation 
of  which  the  New  England  States  are  members ;  "  and  by 
another  gentleman,  well  known  as  one  of  the  ablest  of  the 
Abolitionists,  I  was  told,  "  If  I  could  bring  back  the  South 
ern  States  by  holding  up  my  little  finger,  I  should  consider 
it  criminal  to  do  so."  The  friends  of  the  Union  sometimes 
endeavor  to  disguise  their  sorrow  and  their  humiliation  a/; 


10  THE    CIVIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA. 

the  prospect  presented  by  the  Great  Republic  under  the 
garb  of  pride  in  the  peculiar  excellence  of  institutions  which 
have  permitted  such  a  revolution  as  Secession  without  the 
loss  of  one  drop  of  blood.  But  concession  averts  bloodshed. 
If  I  give  up  my  purse  to  the  footpad  who  presents  a  pistol 
at  my  head  I  satisfy  all  his  demands,  and  he  must  be  a 
sanguinary  miscreant  if  he  pulls  trigger  afterwards.  The 
policeman  has,  surely,  no  business  to  boast  of  the  peculiar 
excellence,  in  such  a  transaction,  of  the  state  of  things 
which  allows  the  transfer  to  take  place  without  bloodshed. 
A  government  may  be  so  elastic  as,  like  an  overstretched 
india-rubber  band,  to  have  no  compressive  force  whatever ; 
and  that  very  quality  is  claimed  for  the  Federal  Government 
as  excellence  by  some  eminent  men  whom  I  have  met,  and 
who  maintained  the  thesis,  that  the  United  States  Govern 
ment  has  no  right  whatever  to  assert  its  authority  by  force 
over  the  people  of  any  State  whatever ;  that,  based  on  the 
consent  of  all,  it  ceases  to  exist  whenever  there  is  dissent,  — 
a  doctrine  which  no  one  need  analyze  who  understands  v>  hat 
are  the  real  uses  and  ends  of  Government.  The  friends  of 
the  existing  administration,  on  the  whole,  regard  the"  Seces 
sion  as  a  temporary  aberration,  which  a  "  masterly  inactiv 
ity,"  the  effects  of  time,  inherent  weakness,  and  a  strong 
reaction,  of  which,  they  flatter  themselves,  they  see  many 
proofs  in  the  Southern  States,  will  correct.  "  Let  us,"  they 
say,  "  deal  with  this  matter  in  our  own  way.  Do  not  inter 
fere.  A  recognition  of  the  Secession  would  be  an  inter 
ference  amounting  to  hostility.  In  good  time  the  violent 
men  down  South  will  come  to  their  senses,  and  the  treason 
will  die  out."  They  ignore  the  difficulties  which  European 
States  may  feel  in  refusing  to  recognize  the  principles  on 
which  the  United  States  were  founded  when  they  find  them 
embodied  in  a  new  Confederation,  which,  so  far  as  we  know, 
may  be  to  all  intents  and  purposes  constituted  in  an  entire 
independence,  and  present  itself  to  the  world  with  claims  to 
recognition  to  which  England,  at  least,  having  regard  to 
precedents  of  de  facto  Governments,  could  only  present  an 
illogical  refusal.  The  hopes  of  other  sections  of  the  North 
erners  are  founded  on  the  want  of  capital  in  the  Slave  States  ; 
on  the  pressure  which  will  come  upon  them  when  they  have 
to  guard  their  own  frontiers  against  the  wild  tribes  who  have 
been  hitherto  repelled  at  the  expense  of  the  whole  Union  by 
the  Federal  troops ;  on  the  exigencies  of  trade,  which  will 
compel  them  to  deal  with  the  North,  and  thereby  to  enter 


THE    CIVIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA.  11 

into  friendly  relations  and  ultimate  re-alliance.  But  most 
impartial  people,  at  least  in  New  York,  are  of  opinion  that 
the  South  has  shaken  the  dust  off  her  feet,  and  will  never 
enter  the  portals  of  the  Union  again.  She  is  confident  in 
her  own  destiny.  She  feels  strong  enough  to  stand  alone. 
She  believes  her  mission  is  one  of  extension  and  conquest 
—  her  leaders  are  men  of  singular  political  ability  and  un 
daunted  resolution.  She  has  but  to  stretch  forth  her  hand, 
as  she  believes,  and  the  Gulf  becomes  an  American  lake 
closed  by  Cuba.  The  reality  of  these  visions  the  South  is 
ready  to  test,  and  she  would  not  now  forego  the  trial,  which 
may,  indeed,  be  the  work  of  years,  but  which  she  will  cer 
tainly  make.  All  the  considerations  which  can  be  urged 
against  her  resolves  are  as  nothing  in  the  way  of  her  pas 
sionate  will,  and  the  world  may  soon  see  under  its  eyes  the 
conflict  of  two  republics  founded  on  the  same  principles,  but 
subjected  to  influences  that  produce  repulsion  as  great  as 
exists  in  two  bodies  charged  with  the  same  electricity.  If 
ever  the  explosion  come  it  will  be  tremendous  in  its  results, 
and  distant  Europe  must  feel  the  shock. 

The  authorities  seem  resolved  to  make  a  stand  at  Fort 
Pickens,  notwithstanding  the  advice  of  Mr.  Douglass  to  give 
it  up.  They  regard  it  as  an  important  Federal  fortress,  as 
indisputably  essential  for  national  purposes  as  Tortugas  or 
Key  West.  Although  United  States  property  has  been 
"occupied,"  the  store  vessels  of  the  State  seized,  and  the 
sovereignty  of  the  seceding  States  successfully  asserted  by 
the  appropriation  of  arsenals,  and  money,  and  war  materials, 
on  the  part  of  the  local  authorities,  the  Government  of 
Washington  are  content  by  non-recognition  to  reserve  their 
own  rights  in  face  of  the  exercise  of  force  majeure. 

The  Chevalier  Bertinnati,  who  has  been  Charge  d'Affaires 
for  the  Government  of  King  Victor  Emmanuel,  has  been 
raised  to  the  rank  of  Minister,  and  in  that  capacity  deliv 
ered  his  letters  of  credence  to  the  President  on  Wednesday. 
The  letter  addressed  to  the  President  by  the  King  of  Pied 
mont  was  couched  in  terms  of  much  friendliness  and  sym 
pathy,  and  Mr.  Lincoln's  reply  was  equally  warm.  There 
is  no  display  of  military  preparation  to  meet  the  eye  either 
at  Washington  or  along  the  road  to  it.  General  Scott,  who 
was  to  have  dined  at  the  President's  Cabinet  dinner  last 
night,  and  who  was  actually  in  the  White  House  for  that 
purpose,  was  compelled  to  leave  by  indisposition.  Any 
attempt  to  relieve  Fort  Sumter  would  unquestionably  be 


THE    CIVIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA. 

attended  with  great  loss  of  life  ;  but  most  Americans  readily 
admit  that  if  they  had  a  foreign  force  to  deal  with,  no  con 
sideration  of  that  kind  would  stay  the  hands  of  the  Govern 
ment.  The  fort  stands  on  a  sand-bank  in  shallow  water,  and 
batteries  have  been  cast  up  on  both  shores  effectually  com 
manding  the  whole  of  the  channels  for  several  miles.  The 
military  activity  and  enterprise  —  I  hear  the  skill  as  well  — 
of  the  South  have  been  displayed  in  the  readiness  and  com 
pleteness  of  their  preparations.  In  Galveston,  Texas,  Gov 
ernor  Houston,  who  has  resigned,  or  been  deposed,  protests, 
it  is  said,  against  the  acts  of  the  new  Government,  and  is 
likely  to  give  them  trouble.  The  telegraph  will,  however, 
anticipate  any  news  of  this  sort  which  I  can  send  you,  though 
its  intelligence  should  be  received  with  many  grains  of  salt. 
Some  people  assert  that  "  the  telegraph  has  caused  the  Se 
cession,"  and  there  is  a  strong  feeling  that  some  restrictions 
should  be  placed  upon  the  misuse  of  it  in  disseminating 
false  reports. 


LETTER     II. 

WASHINGTON,  April  1,  1861. 

FROM  all  I  have  seen  and  heard,  my  belief  is  that  the 
Southern  States  have  gone  from  the  Union,  if  not  forever, 
at  least  for  such  time  as  will  secure  for  their  Government 
an  absolute  independence  till  it  be  terminated  by  war,  or, 
if  their  opponents  be  right,  by  the  certain  processes  of  in 
ternal  decay  arising  from  inherent  vices  in  their  system, 
faulty  organization,  and  want  of  population,  vigor,  and 
wealth.  That  the  causes  which  have  led  to  their  secession 
now  agitate  the  Border  States  most  powerfully  with  a  ten 
dency  to  follow  them  is  not  to  be  denied  by  those  who  watch 
the  course  of  events,  and  as  these  powerful  neutrals  oscillate 
to  and  fro,  under  the  pressure  of  contending  parties  and  pas 
sions,  the  Government  at  Washington  and  the  authorities  of 
the  revolting  States  regard  every  motion  with  anxiety ;  the 
former  fearful  lest  by  word  or  deed  they  may  repel  them 
forever,  the  latter  more  disposed  by  active  demonstrations 
to  determine  the  ultimate  decision  in  their  own  favor,  and 


^  THE    CIVIL    WAR    IX    AMERICA.  13 

to  attach  them  permanently  to  the  Slave  States  by  resolute 
declarations  of  principle.      Whatever  the  results  of  the  Mor- 
rill  tariff  may  be,  it   is   probable  they  must  be  endured  on 
both  sides   of  the  Atlantic,   for   there   is   no  power  in  the 
Government  or  in  the  President,  as  I  understand,  to  modify 
its  provisions,  and  there  is  a  strong  feeling  in  Mr.  Lincoln's 
Cabinet  against  the   extra  session,  so   loudly  demanded  in 
New  York,  and  so   confidently  expected  in  some    parts  of 
the  Union.     Nothing  but  some  overwhelming  State  .neces 
sity  will  overcome  that  opposition,   and,   as  the  magnitude 
of  such  an  occasion  will  have  to  be  estimated  by  those  who 
are  vehemently   opposed   to   an   extra   Congress,   it  is   not 
likely  that  anything  can  occur  which  will  be   considered  of 
sufficient  gravity  by  the  Government  at  Washington  to  in 
duce  them  to   encounter   the  difficulties   and  dangers  they 
anticipate  in  consequence  of  the   convocation   of  an   extra 
ordinary  assemblage  of  both  Houses.     Until  next  December, 
then,  in  all  probability,  the  President  and  his  Cabinet  will 
have  such  control  of  affairs  as  is  possible  in  the  system  of 
this  Government,  or  in  the  circumstances,  together  with  the 
far  more  than   coordinate    responsibility  attached  to  their 
position  as   a  Federal  Government.     It  is  scarcely  possible 
for  an  Englishman,  far  less  for  the  native  of  any  State  pos 
sessing  a  powerful    Executive,   to    comprehend    the    limits 
which  are  assigned  to  the  powers  of  the  State  in  this  country, 
or  to  the  extent  to  which  resistance  to  its  authority  can  be 
carried  by  the  action  of  the  States  supposed  to  be  consent 
ing  parties  to  its  Constitution  and  supporters  of  its  juris 
diction.     Take,  for  instance,  what  is  occurring  within  a  few 
miles  of  the   seat   of  the   Central   Government,   across  the 
Potomac.    ^At  a  certain  iron-foundery  guns  have  been  cast 
for  the   United  States  Government,  which  are   about  to  be 
removed  to   Fort  Monroe,   in   the  State  of  Virginia,  one  of 
the  fortresses   for  the  defence  of  the  United  States.     The 
Legislature   of  Virginia    sat    all    night  last   Saturday,    and 
authorized  the  Governor  of  that  State  to  call  out  the  public 
guard  in  order  to  prevent  by  force,  if  necessary,  the  removal 
of  those  guns,   at   the   same   time  offering  to  the  contractor 
the  price  which  he  was  to  have  received  for  them  from  the 
Federal  Government.     Again,   at  Mobile,  where  a  writ  of 
habeas   corpus  is   sued   out   on   behalf  of   the  master   of  a 
vessel,   who  was   seized  because  he   had   a  cargo   of  small 
stores  which  he   intended  to   sell  to  the  United  States  men- 
of-war  on   observation   off   Pensacola,   the   counsel  for  the 


14  THE    CIVIL    WAK    IN    AMERICA.  t 

State  of  Florida  resists  the  application  on  the  ground  that 
the  prisoner  was  carrying  supplies  to  an  enemy,  and  that  a 
state  of  war  exists  in  consequence  of  the  acts  of  the  Federal 
Government ;  and  the  Court,  without  deciding  on  the  point, 
discharge  the  prisoner,  in  order  that  it  may  be  freed  from 
responsibility.  On  the  other  hand,  the  Federal  Government 
remits  the  penalties  of  forfeiture  and  fines  on  the  vessel 
seized  by  the  Custom  House  at  New  York  for  want  of  proper 
clearances  from  Southern  ports.  The  stereotype  plates  with 
the  words  "  Evacuation  of  Fort  Sumter  "  have  apparently 
been  worn  out,  but  it  is  believed  on  all  sides  that  it  will  be 
abandoned  by  Major  Anderson  this  week,  although  I  heard 
a  member  of  the  Cabinet  declare  last  week  that  no  orders 
had  been  issued  to  that  officer  to  evacuate  it.  If  the  opin 
ions  of  some  of  the  Northern  people  prevailed,  the  fort 
would  be  retained  until  it  was  taken  by  assault.  The 
Southern  Confederation,  secure  of  Fort  Sumter,  are  now 
preparing  for  active  operations  against  Fort  Pickens,  which 
protects  the  entrance  to  the  quondam  United  States  Navy 
Yard  at  Pensacola,  now  in  the  possession  of  the  troops  of 
Florida;  and  certain  organs  of  the  extreme  party  in  the 
South  have  already  demanded  that  the  forts  at  Tortugas 
and  Key  West,  which  are  situated  far  out  at  sea  from  the 
coast,  should  be  surrendered. 

The  Cabinet  of  Mr.  Lincoln  is  understood  to  contain  the 
representatives  of  three  different  courses  of  policy  —  that 
trinity  of  action  which  generally  produces  torpid  and  uncer 
tain  motion  or  complete  rest.  First,  there  are  those  who 
would,  at  any  risk,  vindicate  the  rights  they  claim  for  the 
Federal  Government,  and  use  force,  even  though  it  could 
only,  in  its  most  successful  application,  overrun  the  States 
of  the  South,  and  compel  a  temporary  submission,  without 
leading  to  the  reestablishment  of  Federal  authority,  or  the 
reincorporation  of  the  States  with  the  Union.  Secondly, 
there  are  those,  men  of  intellect  and  capacity,  who,  dis 
senting  altogether  from  the  doctrines  propounded  by  the 
leaders  of  the  revolution,  and  convinced  that  the  separation 
will  not  be  permanent,  see  the  surest  and  safest  mode  of 
action  in  the  total  abstinence  from  all  aggressive  assertion 
of  rights,  and  in  a  policy  of  laissez  alter  of  indeterminate 
longitude  and  latitude.  These  statesmen  believe  that,  like 
most  revolutions,  the  secession  is  the  work  of  the  minority, 
and  that  a  strong  party  of  reaction  exists,  which  will  come 
to  the  front  by  and  by,  "  expel  the  traitors,"  and  return 


THE    CIVIL    WAR    IX    AMERICA.  15 

triumphantly  with   their  repentant  States  into  the  bosom  of 
the   Union.     The    gentlemen  who   hold    these    views  have 
either   a  more   accurate    knowledge    than    the   public,    are 
better  read  in  the  signs  of  the  times,  or  have  more  faith  in 
the^  efficacy  of  inaction   on   the   love  of  Americans  for  the 
Union,  than  is  possessed  by  most  of  the  outer  world.     The 
third  party  is  formed  of  those  who  are  inclined  to  take  the 
South  at  their  word ;   to  cut  the  cord  at  once,  believing  that 
the  loss  would  be  a  gain,  and  that  the  Southern  Confedera 
tion   would  inflict  on   itself  a   most  signal    retribution  for 
what  they  consider  as   th?   crime  of  breaking  up  the  Union. 
Practically,  so   far  as  I  have  gone,  I  have   failed  to  meet 
many  people  who  really  exhibited  any   passionate  attach 
ment  to   the  Union  for  its  own  sake,  or  who  pretended  to 
be  animated  by  any  strong  feelings  of  regard  or  admiration 
for  the   Government  of  the  United    States  in  itself.     The 
word  '"Constitution"  is  forever  ringing   in  one's  ears,  its 
"  principles  "  and  its  authority  are  continually  appealed  to, 
but   the   end  is  no  nearer.     The  other   day  I  bought  the' 
whole  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  neatly  printed,  for 
three  halfpence.    But  the  only  conclusion  I  could  draw  was, 
that  it  was  better  for  States  not  to  have  Constitutions  which 
could  be  bought  at  such  very  moderate  prices.      It  is  rather 
an  inopportune  moment  for  the  Professor  of  the  Harvard  Law 
School  to  send  forth  his  lecture  on  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States,  and  on  the  differences  between  it  and  that  of 
Great  Britain.     Just  as   the  learned  gentleman  is  glorying 
in  the  supremacy  of  the  Judicial  body  of  the  United  States 
over  Congress,  Presidents,  and  Legislatures,  the  course  of 
events  exhibits  that  Supreme  Court  as  a  mere  nullity  in  the 
body  politic,  unable  to  take  cognizance,  or  unwilling  to  act 
in  regard  to  matters  which  are  tearing  the  Constitution  into 
atoms.     No  one  thinks  of  appealing  to  it,  or  invoking  its 
decision.     And,  after  all,  if  the  Court  were  to  decide,  what 
would  be  the   use   of  its  judgment,  if  one   or  other  of  the 
two  great  parties   resisted   it  ?     The  ultima  ratio  would  be 
the  only  means  by  which   the    decision  could  be   enforced. 
In  the  very  midst  of  the  hymns  which  are  offered  up  around 
the  shrines  of  the  Constitution,  whether  old  or  mended,  all 
celebrating  the  powers  of  the  great  priestess   of  the   mys 
teries,  there  are  heretic  voices  to  be  heard,  which,  in  addition 
to  other  matters,  deny  that  the  Supreme  Court  was  ever  in 
tended  by  the  Constitution   to  exercise  the  sole  and  signal 
right  of  interpreting  the  Constitution,  that  it  is  competent 


16  THE    CIVIL    WAS.    IN    AMERICA. 

to  do  so,  or  that  it  would  be  safe  to  give  it  the  power.  Its 
powers  are  judicial,  not  political,  and  Mr.  Calhoun  on  that 
very  point  said  : 

"  Let  it  never  be  forgotten,  that  if  we  should  absurdly  attribute  to 
the  Supreme  Court  the  exclusive  right  of  construing  the  Constitution, 
there  would  be,  in  fact,  between  the  sovereign  and  subject  under  such 
a  Government  no  Constitution,  or  at  least  nothing  deserving  the 
name,  or  serving  the  legitimate  object  of  so  sacred  an  instrument." 

The  argument  revolves  in  a  circle  ;  it  ends  nowhere,  and 
there  seems  no  solution  except  such  as  concession  or  a 
sword  cut  may  give. 

There  are  at  present  in  Washington  two  of  the  three  un 
recognized  Ministers  Plenipotentiary  of  the  Southern  Gov 
ernment,  Mr.  Roman  and  Mr.  Crawford.  Judging  from 
the  tone  of  these  gentlemen,  all  idea  of  returning  to  the 
Union,  under  any  circumstances  whatever,  has  been  utterly 
abandoned.  Mr.  Forsyth,  the  third  of  the  Commissioners, 
who  is  at  present  engaged  in  adjusting  certain  business  of  a 
very  important  character  at  New  York,  is  expected  back  in 
a  few  days,  and  it  will  then  be  seen  whether  the  Commis 
sioners  consent  to  walk  up  and  down  in  the  salles  des  pas 
perdus  any  longer.  They  are  armed  with  full  powers  on 
all  questions  which  can  come  up  for  settlement.  The  Gov 
ernment  has  refused  to  receive  them,  or  to  take  any  official 
notice  of  them  whatever  ;  but  there  is  reason  to  believe  that 
certain  propositions  and  negotiations  have  been  laid  before 
Mr.  Seward  in  a  private  and  unofficial  manner,  to  which  no 
reply  of  a  definite  character  has  been  given.  Before  this 
letter  reaches  you,  Mr.  Yancey,  Mr.  Mann,  and  Mr.  Rort 
will  have  arrived  in  Europe  to  try  the  temper  of  the  Govern 
ments  of  England  and  France  in  reference  to  the  recognition 
of  the  Southern  States.  Both  parties  have  been  somewhat 
startled  by  the  intelligence  of  an  active  movement  of  Spain 
to  gain  political  ascendancy  in  St.  Domingo  ;  and  the  news 
that  France  and  England  are  sending  a  combined  fleet,  to 
these  shores,  though  coming  in  a  very  questionable  shape, 
has  excited  uneasy  feeling  and  some  recrimination. 

If  the  Congress  is  reassembled,  there  is  much  reason  to 
fear  an  open  rupture  ;  if  not,  another  solution  may  be  ar 
rived  at.  It  is  unfortunate  for  the  Government  that  General 
Scott  is  suffering  at  this  moment  from  the  infirmities  of  age, 
and  the  effect  of  the  great  demands  made  upon  his  strength. 
Mr.  Lincoln  gave  a  dinner  to  his  Cabinet  on  Thursday  last, 
the  first  of  the  season,  in  honor  principally  of  General  Scott; 


THE    CIVIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA.  17 

but  the  veteran  General,  who  had  entered  the  White  House, 
was  obliged  to  leave  before  dinner  was  served.  There  has 
been  a  great  emigration  of  candidates  and  office-hunters 
from  this  since  I  last  wrote,  some  contented,  many  more 
grumbling.  It  is  asserted  that  there  never  has  been  such  a 
clean  sweep  of  office-holders  since  the  practice  was  intro 
duced  by  General  Jackson.  If  I  am  rightly  informed,  the 
President  has  the  patronage  of  one  hundred  and  forty  thou 
sand  places,  great  and  small  —  some  very  small. 

NIGHT. —  The   influence  of  England  and  of  France  on 
the  destinies  of  the  Republic  is  greater  than  any  American 
patriot  would   like    to    admit.     It  must  not  be   expected, 
therefore,  that  there  will   be  any  proof  of  excessive  anxiety 
afforded   by  the  leaders  of  either  party  in  reference  to  the 
course  which  may  be  taken   by  the   European  Governments 
in  the  present  crisis  ;  but   it  is  not  the  less  to  be  appre 
hended,  that  an  immediate  recognition  of  the  confederated 
independence  of  the   South,   or  of  the  doctrine  of  absolute 
individual   sovereignty   on  the   part  of  those   States,    may 
precipitate  the  hostile  action  which,  in  the  event  of  absolute 
final  separation,  seems  to  be  inevitable.     To  the  North  it 
would  be  a  heavy  blow  and  great  discouragement,  the  con 
sequences  of  which  could   only   be  averted  by   some  very 
violent  remedies.     Separation  without  war  is  scarcely  to  be 
expected.     The  establishment  of  an  independent  Republic 
in  the  South  may,  indeed,  be  effected  peaceably  ;   but  it  is 
not,  humanly  speaking,  within  the  limits  of  any  probability 
that  the  diverse  questions  which  will  arise  out  of  conflicting 
interests  in  regard  to  revenue  and  State  and  Federal  rights 
can  be  settled  without  an  appeal  to  arms.     At  the  present 
minute  there  is  nothing  to  induce  a  stranger  to  believe  that 
an  effectual  resistance  could  be  offered  to  a  vigorous  aggres 
sive   movement  from  the    South,   supposing  the    means  to 
make  it  existed  either  in  the  adhesion  or  permission  of  the 
Border  States.     The  North,  however,  is  strong  in  its  popu 
lation,  in  its  wealth,  and  in  its  calm.     In  the  hands  of  the 
Border  States  are  all  the  arbitraments  of  revolution  or  union, 
of  war  or  peace.      By  an  unmeaning  euphemism  the  revolu 
tion  of  the  South  has   been   called  Secession  ;  but  the  con 
fusion  and  mischief  caused  by  the   euphemistic  timidity  of 
statesmen  disappear,  when  the  acts  of  the  South  are  tested 
by  the  standard  applicable  to  revolutionary  crises  ;    and  by 
that  standard  alone  are  those  acts  intelligible  and  coherent. 
Measured  in  that  way,  the  seizure  of  property,   the   deeds 


18  THE    CIVIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA. 

and  the  language  of  the  leaders  of  the  movement,  and  the 
acts  of  the  masses,  can  be  properly  estimated.  Mr.  Douglass, 
whose  mental  capacity  is  a  splendid  justification  of  his 
enormous  political  activity,  and  of  a  high  political  rank  — 
unattached  —  is  understood  to  be  engaged  on  a  vast  system 
for  establishing  duties  all  over  the  Noith  American  conti 
nent  in  the  nature  of  a  Zollverein.  It  is  his  opinion  that 
the  North,  in  case  of  separation,  must  fight  the  South  on 
the  arena  of  free  trade  ;  that  the  tariff  -must  be  completely 
altered  ;  and  that  the  duties  must  be  lowered  from  point  to 
point,  in  proportion  as  the  South  bids  against  the  North  for 
the  commerce  of  Europe,  till  the  reduction  reaches  such  a 
point  that  the  South,  forced  to  raise  revenue  for  the  actual 
expenses  of  Government,  and  unable  to  struggle  against  the 
superior  wealth  of  the  North  in  such  a  contest,  is  obliged 
to  come  to  an  understanding  with  its  powerful  competitor, 
and  to  submit  to  a  treaty  of  commerce  which  shall  include 
all  the  States  of  the  North  American  continent,  from  the 
Isthmus  of  Panama  to  the  ice  of  the  Arctic  Seas.  The 
Canadas  are,  of  course,  included  in  such  a  project  ;  indeed, 
it  is  difficult  to  say  where  the  means  of  escaping  from  their 
present  embarrassment  will  not  be  sought  by  the  leading 
statesmen  of  America.  But  on  one  point  all  are  agreed. 
Whatever  may  happen,  the  North  will  insist  on  a  Free 
Mississippi.  It  is  the  very  current  of  life  for  the  trade  of 
myriads  of  people  hundreds  of  miles  from  New  Orleans. 
If  Louisiana,  either  as  sovereign  State  or  representative 
agent  of  the  Southern  Confederation,  attempts  to  control 
the  navigation  of  that  river,  we  shall  see  a  most  terrible  and 
ruinous  war.  Let  England  look  to  the  contingencies. 

APRIL  5.  —  One  month  and  one  day  have  elapsed  since 
Mr.  Lincoln  and  his  Cabinet  were  installed  at  Washington. 
Long  previous  to  their  accession  to  power  or  rather  to  office, 
the  revolution  of  the  South  had  assumed  the  aspect  of  an 
independent  Government.  When  the  new  Administration 
tried  to  direct  the  horses'  heads,  they  found  the  reins  were 
cut,  and  all  they  could  do  was  to  sit  on  the  State  coach,  and 
take  their  chance  of  falling  in  a  soft  place,  or  of  the  fiery 
steeds  coming  to  a  standstill  from  exhaustion.  A  month 
ago  and  the  State  Treasury  was  nearly  exhausted  ;  only 
some  £370,000  was  forthcoming  to  meet  demands  and  re 
quirements  four  times  as  large.  The  navy  was  scattered  all 
over  the  world  at  stations  by  no  means  readily  accessible, 


THE    CIVIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA.  19 

the  army  posted  along  frontier  lines,  between  which  and  the 
Northern  States  was  interposed  the  expanse  of  the  Southern 
Confederation ;  the  officers  disaffected  to  the  Government, 
or  at  all  events  so  well  affected  to  their  individual  sovereign 
States  as  to  feel  indisposed  to  serve  the  United  States ;  the 
whole  machinery  of  Government  in  the  hands  of  the  revo 
lutionary  leaders,  every  trace  of  Federal  existence  erased  in 
the  South,  wiped  away  by  acts  which,  unless  justified  by  suc 
cessful  revolt,  would  be  called  treasonable,  or  by  force  or 
stratagem,  and  only  two  forts  held  on  the  seaboard,  weekly 
garrisoned,  and  unhappily  situated  with  reference  to  opera 
tions  of  relief.  In  addition  to  these  sources  of  weakness, 
came  the  confusion  and  apprehension  caused  by  divided 
counsels,  want  of  cohesion,  the  disorders  of  a  violent  nation 
al  contest,  mistrust  of  adequate  support,  and  above  all  the 
imperious  necessities  of  the  place-seekers,  whose  importunate 
requisitions  distracted  the  attention  of  the  Government  from 
the  more  important  business  which  presented  itself  for  ad 
justment.  It  was,  of  course,  necessary  to  fill  the  posts 
which  were  occupied  by  enemies  with  men  devoted  to  the 
interests  of  a  Government  which  could  little  brook  any  in 
difference  or  treacherous  tendencies  on  the  part  of  its  subor 
dinates.  But  had  the  Adminstration  been  as  strong  in  all 
respects  as  any  United  States  Government  ever  could  or  can 
hope  to  be,  in  reference  to  such  emergencies  as  the  present, 
it  really  could  have  done  little  except  precipitate  a  civil  war, 
in  which  the  Border  States  would  have  arranged  themselves 
by  the  side  of  the  Cotton  States.  A  considerable  portion  of 
the  North  would  have  been  hostile  to  coercion,  and  the 
theories  which  have  been  propounded  with  much  apparent 
approbation  respecting  the  actual  uses  of  Government,  its 
powers  and  jurisdiction,  show  that  European  doctrines  on 
such  points  are  not  at  all  accepted  by  statesmen,  politicians 
and  jurists  in  North  America.  Without  the  means  of  en 
forcing  an  authority  which  many  of  its  own  adherents,  and 
most  of  the  neutral  parties  denied  to  it,  Mr.  Lincoln's  Ad 
ministration  finds  itself  called  upon  to  propound  a  policy 
and  to  proceed  to  vigorous  action.  The  demand  is  scarcely 
reasonable.  The  policy  of  such  men  suddenly  lifted  to  the 
head  of  affairs,  which  they  cannot  attempt  to  guide,  must  be 
to  wait  and  watch,  and  their  action  must  be  simply  tentative 
as  they  have  no  power  to  put  forth  with  moderate  hope  of 
success  any  aggressive  force. 

Be  satisfied  of  this  —  the  United  States  Government  will 


20  THE    CITIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA. 

give  up  no  power  or  possession  which  it  has  at  present  got. 
By  its  voluntary  act  it  will  surrender  nothing  whatever. 
No  matter  what  reports  may  appear  in  the  papers  or  in  let 
ters,  distrust  them  if  they  would  lead  you  to  believe  that  Mr. 
Linclon  is  preparing  either  to  abandon  what  he  has  now,  or 
to  recover  that  which  he  Las  not. 

The  United  States  Government  is  in  an  attitude  of  protest ; 
it  cannot  strike  an  offensive  blow.  But,  if  any  attack  is 
made  upon  it,  the  Government  hopes  that  it  will  be  strength 
ened  by  the  indignation  of  the  North  and  West,  to  such 
an  extent  that  it  cannot  only  repel  the  aggression,  but 
possibly  give  a  stimulus  to  a  great  reaction  in  its  favor. 

On  these  principles  Fort  Sumter  and  Fort  Pickens  are 
held.  They  are  claimed  as  Federal  fortresses.  The  Stars 
and  Stripes  still  float  over  them.  Whatever  may  be  said  to 
the  contrary,  they  will  remain  there  till  they  are  removed  by 
the  action  of  the  Confederate  States.  The  Commissioners 
of  Mr.  Jefferson  Davis's  Government  "  have  reason  to  say 
that  if  any  attempt  be  made  to  throw  reinforcements  into 
Fort  Pickens,  unless  they  receive  previous  notice  of  it  as 
promised,  it  will  be  a  breach  of  good  faith."  From  all  I 
can  learn,  no  intention  of  strengthening  the  fort  is  at  present 
entertained  ;  but  it  may  be  doubted  if  the  attempt  would  not 
be  made  should  any  favorable  opportunity  of  doing  so  pre 
sent  itself.  All  "  the  movements  of  troops,"  of  which  you 
will  see  accounts,  are  preparations  against  —  not  for  — 
aggression.  At  most  they  amount  to  the  march  of  a  few 
companies  and  guns  to  various  forts,  now  all  but  undefend 
ed.  Fort  Washington,  of  which  I  shall  have  a  few  words 
to  say  hereafter,  was  till  lately  held  by  a  very  inadequate 
force.  As  a  member  of  the  Cabinet  said  to  me,  "  I  could 
have  taken  it  last  week  with  a  little  whisky,"  that  potent 
artillery  being  applied  to  the  weak  defences  of  the  aged 
Irish  artilleryman  who  constituted  "  the  garrison."  The 
"  formidable  military  force  concentrated  in  Washington,"  of 
which  you  may  read  in  the  American  journals,  consists  of 
aboat  700  men  of  all  arms,  as  far  as  I  can  see,  and  four  brass 
field  guns.  There  is  a  good  deal  of  drumming,  fifing,  march 
ing,  and  music  going  on  daily.  I  look  on  and  see  a  small 
band  in  gay  uniforms,  a  small  body  of  men  in  sombre  uni 
forms,  varying  from  fifteen  to  thirty  rank  and  file,  armed,  how 
ever,  with  excellent  rifles,  and  a  very  large  standard,  pass  by  ; 
and  next  day  I  read  that  such  and  such  a  company  had  a 
parade,  and  "  attracted  much  admiration  by  their  efficient 


THE    CIVIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA.  21 

and  soldierly  appearance,  and  the  manner  in  which,"  &c. 
But  these  military  companies  have  no  intention  of  fighting 
for  the  Government.  Their  sympathies  are  quite  undeter 
mined.  Formidable  as  they  would  be  in  skirmishing  in  the 
open  country,  they  Avould  be  of  comparatively  little  use 
against  regular  troops  at  the  outset  of  the  contest,  as  they 
have  never  learnt  to  act  together,  and  do  not  aspire  to  form 
even  battalions.  But  their  existence  indicates  the  strong 
military  tendencies  of  the  people,  and  the  danger  of  doing 
anything  which  might  turn  them  against  the  Government. 
Mr.  Lincoln  has  no  power  to  make  war  against  the  South  : 
the  Congress  alone  could  give  it  to  him  ;  and  that  is  not 
likely  to  be  given,  because  Congress  will  not  be  assembled 
before  the  usual  time,  unless  under  the  pressure  of  and  im 
perious  necessity.. 

Why,  then,  hold  these  forts  at  all  ?  Why  not  give  them 
up  ?  Why  not  withdraw  the  garrison,  strike  the  flag,  and 
cease  to  keep  up  a  useles-s  source  of  irritation  in  the  midst 
of  the  Southern  Confederation  ?  The  answer  to  these 
questions  is :  These  forts  are  Federal  property.  The 
Government  does  not  acknowledge  the  existence  of  any 
right  on  the  part  of  the  people  of  the  States  to  seize  them 
as  appertaining  to  individual  States.  The  forts  are  protests 
against  the  acts  of  violence  to  which  the  Federal  authority 
has  yielded  elsewhere.  They  are,  moreover,  the  points 
d'appui,  small  as  they  are,  on  which  the  Federal  Govern 
ment  can  rest  its  resistance  to  the  claims  of  the  Southern 
Confederation  to  be  acknowledged  as  an  independent  repub 
lic.  If  they  were  surrendered  without  attack,  or  without 
the  existence  of  any  pressure  arising  from  the  refusal  of  the 
Southern  authorities  to  permit  them  to  get  supplies,  which 
is  an  act  of  war,  the  case  of  the  United  States  Government 
would  be,  they  consider,  materially  weakened.  If  it  be 
observed  that  these  forts  have  no  strategic  value,  it  may 
readily  be  replied  that  their  political  value  is  very  great. 
But,  serious  as  these  considerations  may.be,  or  may  be 
thought  to  be,  with  respect  to  foreign  relations,  there  are  in 
reference  to  domestic  politics  still  more  weighty  inducements 
to  hold  them.  The  effect  produced  in  the  North  and  North 
west  by  an  attack  on  the  forts  while  the  United  States  flag 
is  floating  over  them,  would  be  as  useful  to  the  Government 
at  Washington  as  the  effect  of  abandoning  the  forts  or  tamely 
surrendering  them  would  be  hurtful  to  them  in  the  estima 
tion  of  the  extreme  Republicans.  A  desperate  attack,  a 


THE    CITIL    WAS    IX    AMERICA. 

gallant  defense,  the  shedding  of  the  blood  of  gallant  men, 
whose  duty  it  was  to  defend  that  intrusted  to  their  keeping, 
and  who  yielded  only  to  numbers  —  the  outrage  on  the 
United  States  flag  —  would  create  an  excitement  in  the 
Union  which  the  South,  with  all  its  determination  and 
courage,  is  unwilling  to  provoke,  but  which  the  Government 
would  be  forced  to  use  in  its  own  service.  Such  an  event 
must  lead  to  war,  a  very  terrible  and  merciless  war,  and  both 
parties  pause  before  they  resort  to  that  court  of  arms.  Unless 
the  Border  States  join  the  South,  Mr.  Jefferson  Davis  could 
scarcely  hope  to  carry  out  the  grand  projects  which  are  attribu 
ted  to  his  military  genius  of  marching  northward,  and  dictat 
ing  terms  on  their  own  soil  to  the  Republicans.  He  could 
scarcely  venture  to  leave  the  negro  population  unguarded  in 
his  rear,  and  his  flanks  menaced  by  the  sea-born  northerners 
on  the  one  side,  and  by  such  operations  as  the  water- sheds 
significantly  indicate  on  the  other.  It  is  idle  to  speculate  on 
the  incidents  of  that  which  may  never  occur,  and  which,  oc 
curring,  may  assume  the  insignificant  aspect  of  border  skir 
mishes,  or  the  tremendous  proportions  of  a  war  of  races  and 
creeds,  intensified  by  the  worst  elements  of  servile  and  civil 
conflict.  The  Government  of  Mr.  Lincoln  hope  and  believe 
that  the  contest  may  be  averted.  The  Commissioners  of  the 
South  are  inclined  to  think,  also,  there  will  be  a  peaceful  solu 
tion,  obtained,  of  course,  by  full  concession  and  recognition. 
But  inaction  cannot  last  on  the  part  of  the  South.  Already 
they  have  begun  the  system  of  coercion.  The  supplies  of  the 
garrison  at  Sumter  will  be  cut  off  henceforth,  if  they  are 
not  already  forbidden.  They  do  not  fear  the  moral  effect  of 
this  act,  for  some  of  their  leading  men  actually  believe  that 
nothing  can  stop  the  progress  of  a  movement  which  will, 
they  fondly  think,  absorb  all  the  other  States  of  the  Union, 
and  leave  the  New  England  States  to  form  an  insignificant 
republic  of  its  own,  with  a  possible  larger  destiny  in  Canada. 
Their  opponents  in  the  North  are  as  fully  satisfied  that  the 
direst  Nemesis,  will  fall  on  the  Montgomery  Government  in 
the  utter  ruin  of  all  their  States  the  moment  they  are  left  to 
themselves. 

The  Government  is  elated  at  the  success  of  the  loan,  and 
Mr.  Chase  has  taken  high  ground  in  refusing  offers  made  to 
him  yesterday,  and  in  resolving  to  issue  Government  securi 
ties  for  the  balance  of  the  amount  required  to  complete  the 
amount.  Mr.  Forsyth,  one  of  the  Southern  Commissioners, 
who  has  just  returned  from  New  York  here,  is  equally  satisfied 


THE    CIVIL    WAB    IN    AMERICA.  23 

with  the  temper  of  parties  in  that  city,  and  seems  to  think  that 
the  New  Yorkers  are  preparing  for  a  secession.  But,  though 
States  may  be  sovereign,  it  has  never  been  ascertained  that 
cities  or  portions  of  States  are  so,  and  in  the  western  and 
northern  portions  of  the  State  of  New  York  there  is  a  large 
agricultural  population,  which,  with  the  aid  of  Government, 
would  speedily  suppress  any  attempt  to  secede  on  the  part 
of  the  city,  if  men  are  to  be  believed  who  say  they  know 
the  circumstances  of  the  case.  Virginia  is  claimed  by  both 
sides,  but  accounts  this  morning  are  to  the  effect  that  the 
Secessionists  have  been  defeated  on  a  division  by  a  vote  of 
two  to  one  in  favor  of  the  Union  ;  and  although  General 
Houston  appears  to  be  forced  to  accept  the  situation  for  a 
time,  there  are  many  who  think  he  will  organize  a  strong 
reaction  against  the  dominant  Secessionists. 

Whatever  may  be  these  result  of  all  the  diverse  actions,  the 
Great  Republic  is  gone  !  The  shape  of  the  fragments  is  not 
yet  determined  any  more  than  their  fate.  They  may  reunite, 
but  the  cohesion  can  never  be  perfect.  The  ship  of  the  State 
was  built  of  too  many  "  platforms,"  there  were  too  many 
officers  on  board,  perhaps  the  principles  of  construction  were 
erroneous,  the  rigid  cast-iron  old  constitution  guns  burst 
violently  when  tried  with  new  projectiles  —  any  way,  those 
who  adhere  with  most  devotion  to  the  vessel,  admit  that  it 
is  parted  right  amidships,  and  that  its  prestige  has  vanished. 
The  more  desperate  of  these  would  gladly  see  an  enemy,  or 
go  out  of  their  way  to  find  one,  in  the  hope  of  a  common 
bond  of  union  being  discovered  in  a  common  animosity  and 
danger. 

The  naval  preparations,  of  which  you  will  hear  a  good 
deal,  are  intended  to  make  good  existing  deficiencies  and  to 
meet  contingencies.  At  any  other  time  the  action  of  Spain 
in  St.  Domingo  would  create  a  cry  for  war.  Now  all  the 
Federal  Government  can  do  is  to  demand  and  receive 
explanations.  In  reply  to  Mr.  Seward's  inquiries,  the  Span 
ish  Minister  has  possibly  stated  that  the  recent  events  in  St. 
Domingo  have  been  caused  by  the  acts  and  threats  of  Hayti, 
which  forced  the  Dominicans  to  call  in  the  aid  and  claim  the 
protection  of  Spain.  There  have  been  several  attempts  from 
time  to  time  to  induce  France  to  assume  the  dominion  of  its 
former  possession,  and  it  is  not  unlikely  that  an  excellent 
understanding  exists  between  the  Court  of  Madrid  and  the 
Emperor  Napoleon  in  reference  to  the  subject.  The  report 
that  the  Mexicans  have  made,  or  contemplate  making,  an 
attack  on  Texas,  is  scarcely  worthy  of  credence. 


24  THE    CIVIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA. 

As  to  the  Morrill  tariff,  I  can  only  repeat  what  I  have 
already  said.  It  must  be  borne  till  results  show  that  it  can 
not  be  persisted  in.  Then  only  will  it  be  repealed  or  modi 
fied.  The  theory  of  the  Government  is,  that  the  United 
States  always  takes  far  more  from  Europe  than  it  can  pay 
for.  "  If  the  revenue  is  collected,  there  is  no  ground  for 
complaint.  The  English  and  French  manufacturer  will  be- 
satisfied,  as  well  as  the  northern  population.  If  the  revenue 
is  not  collected,  then  the  tariff  must  be  repealed,  and  that 
will  be  done  within  the  year,  if  the  mischief  is  serious." 
Birmingham,  Wolverhampton,  and  Manchester  must  make 
the  best  they  can  out  of  the  doctrine. 


LETTER    III. 

WASHINGTON,  April  9,  1861. 

THE  critical  position  of  the  Federal  Government  has  com 
pelled  its  members  to  preserve  secrecy.  Never  before  under 
any  Administration  was  so  little  of  the  councils  of  the 
Cabinet  known  to  the  public,  or  to  those  who  are  supposed 
to  be  acquainted  with  the  opinions  of  the  statesmen  in 
office.  Mr.  Seward  has  issued  the  most  stringent  orders  to 
the  officers  and  clerks  in  his  department  to  observe  the 
rules,  which  heretofore  have  been  much  disregarded,  in 
reference  to  the  confidential  character  of  State  papers  in 
their  charge.  The  sources  of  the  fountain  of  knowledge 
from  which  friendly  journalists  drew  so  freely  are  thus 
stopped  without  fear,  favor,  or  affection,  toward  any.  The 
result  has  been  much  irritation  in  quarters  where  such 
"  interference  "  is  regarded  as  unwarrantable,  or,  at  least, 
as  very  injurious.  The  newspapers  which  enjoyed  the 
privilege  of  free  access  to  despatches  are  hatching  canards, 
which  they  let  fly  along  the  telegraph  wires  with  amazing 
productiveness  and  fertility  of  conception  and  incubation. 
Hence  the  monstrous  and  ridiculous  rumors  which  harden 
into  type  everyday — hence  the  clamors  for  "a  policy," 
and  hence  ,the  contending  accusations  that  the  Government 
is  doing  nothing,  and  that  it  is  also  preparing  to  plunge  the 
country  into  civil  war.  Each  member  of  the  Cabinet  has 
become  a  Burleigh,  every  shake  of  whose  head  perplexes 


THE    CIVIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA.  25 

New  York  with  a  fear  of  change  ;  every  Senator  is  watched 
by  private  reporters,  who  trace  "  the  day's  disasters  in  his 
morning's  face."  If  a  weak  company  of  artillery  is  marched 
on  board  a  ship,  its  movements  are  chronicled  in  columns 
of  vivid  description,  and  its  footsteps  are  made  to  sound 
like  the  march  of  a  vast  army.  The  telegraph  from  Wash 
ington  has  learnt  its  daily  message  about  Fort  Sumter  and 
Fort  Pickens  by  heart,  and  the  world  has  been  soothed 
daily  by  the  assurance  that  General  Braxton  Bragg  is  ready, 
and  that  the  South  Carolinians  can  no  longer  be  restrained. 
But  there  is  always  a  secret  understanding  that  Generals 
Bragg  and  Beauregard  will  be  more  ready  still  the  next 
day,  and  that  the  people  will  be  more  unrestrainable  by 
next  telegram.  When  I  landed  in  New  York,  the  first 
news  I  learnt  was  that  Fort  Sumter  would  be  evacuated 
next  day  ;  and  if  not,  that  the  supplies  would  be  cut  off,  and 
that  the  garrison  would  be  starved  out.  I  have  learnt  how 
to  distrust  prophecy,  and  I  am  going  South  in  the  hope 
that  the  end  is  not  yet.  The  Southern  Commissioners  state 
that  the  Government  here  has  promised  them  that  no  efforts 
shall  be  made  to  reenforce  Fort  Pickens  without  previous 
notice  to  them  —  a  very  singular  promise.  The  Govern 
ment,  ho  vever,  denies  that  it  has  been  in  communication 
with  them.  Fort  Sumter  must  be  considered  as  gone,  for 
there  is  no  disposition,  apparently,  on  the  part  of  the  Govern 
ment  to  hazard  the  loss  of  life  and  great  risk  which  must 
inevitably  attend  any  attempt  to  relieve  or  carry  off  the 
garrison,  now  that  the  channels  are  under  the  fire  of  numer 
ous  heavily  armed  batteries,  which  the  people  of  South  Car 
olina  were  permitted  to  throw  up  without  molestation. 
The  operations  of  a  relieving  force  would  have  to  be  con 
ducted  on  a  very  large  scale  by  troops  disembarking  on  the 
shores  and  taking  the  batteries  in  reverse,  in  conjunction 
with  an  attack  from  the  sea  ;  and,  after  all,  such  an  expedi 
tion  would  be  futile,  unless  it  were  intended  to  occupy 
Charleston,  and  try  the  fortune  of  war  in  South  Carolina  — 
an  intention  quite  opposed  to  the  expressions  and,  I  be 
lieve,  the  feelings  of  the  Cabinet  of  Washington,  not  to 
speak  of  the  people  of  the  Border  States  and  of  large  rem 
nants  of  the  Union.  From  your  correspondent  at  New 
York  you  will  receive  full  particulars  of  the  movements  of 
troops,  and  of  the  naval  preparations  which  are  reported  in 
the  papers,  which  create  more  curiosity  than  excitement 
3 


26  THE    CIVIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA. 

among  the  people  I  meet.  My  task  must  be  to  describe 
what  I  see  around  me. 

It  may  be  as  well  to  state  in  the  most  positive  terms 
that  the  reports  which  have  appeared  in  the  American  papers 
of  communications  between  the  English  Minister  and  the 
American  Government  on  the  subject  of  a  blockade  of  the 
Southern  ports,  are  totally  and  entirely  destitute  of  founda 
tion.  No  communication  of  any  kind  has  passed  between 
Lord  Lyons,  on  the  part  of  the  English  Government,  and 
Mr.  Seward,  or  any  one  else,  on  behalf  of  the  Government 
at  Washington.  It  would  be  a  most  offensive  proceeding 
to  volunteer  any  intimation  of  the  course  to  be  pursued  by  a 
European  Power  respecting  a  contingency  of  action  on  the 
part  of  the  United  States ;  nor  would  it  be  necessary,  in 
case  a  blockade  were  declared,  to  formulate  a  supererogatory 
notice  that  it  must  be  such  a  blockade  as  the  law  of  nations 
recognizes.  The  importance  of  a  distinct  understanding  on 
that  point  is  all  the  greater  in  connection  with  the  stories 
which  are  afloat  that  the  naval  preparations  of  the  hour  are 
intended  to  afford  the  Federal  Government  the  means  of 
blockading  the  mouths  of  the  Mississippi  and  the  Southern 
ports,  with  the  object  of  collecting  the  Federal  revenue.  If 
anything  is  clearer  than  another,  in  the  doubt  and  perplexity 
which  prevail,  it  is  that  the  Government  will  do  nothing 
whatever  to  precipitate  a  conflict.  It  would  ill  become  me, 
in  such  a  crisis,  to  hazard  any  authoritative  statements  as  to 
the  conduct  of  the  Administration  under  the  very  great 
variety  of  complications  which  may  arise  hereafter.  Of  this, 
however,  be  assured,  not  a  ship,  or  a  gun,  or  a  man  will  be 
directed  to  make  any  attack,  or  to  begin  an  offensive  move 
ment  against  the  Confederate  States.  If  any  promise  was 
made  by  the  Buchanan  Administration  to  inform  the  mem 
bers  of  the  Southern  Government  or  its  representatives  of 
their  course  of  action,  it  will  not  be  considered  binding  on 
the  consciences  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  Cabinet,  composed  as  it  is 
of  men  who  look  on  their  predecessors  as  guilty  of  treason 
to  the  State.  An  attempt  may  be  made  to  reenforce  Fort 
Pickens,  and  neither  that  nor  any  position  occupied  by  the 
Federal  authorities  will  be  voluntarily  abandoned. 

Once  for  all,  let  it  be  impressed  on  the  minds  of  the 
English  people  that  whatever  reports  they  hear,  and  how 
ever  they  may  come  —  no  matter  whence,  or  in  what  guise 
—  there  is  no  truth  in  them  if  they  indicate  the  smallest  in 
tention  on  the  part  of  Mr.  Lincoln  to  depart  from  the  policy 


THE    CIVIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA.  27 

indicated  in  his  Inaugural  Address.  As  strongly  as  words 
can  do  it,  I  repeat  that  the  forces  which  have  been  assem 
bled  are  only  intended  for  the  reenforcement  of  the  strong 
places  at  Tortugas  and  Key  West,  which  have  been  left 
short  of  every  necessary  of  occupation  and  defence,  and  for 
the  establishment  of  posts  of  observation,  which  are  essential 
in  case  of  hostility  and  to  guard  against  surprise  or  treachery. 
I  have  dwelt  in  previous  letters  on  the  obvious  policy  of  the 
Government  of  the  United  States,  and  I  beg  your  readers  to 
have  firm  faith  that  there  will  be  no  departure  from  it.  By 
concentrating  forces  at  Key  West  and  Tortugas  very  valua 
ble  political  results  are  obtained  in  face  of  the  present 
disputes,  and  material  strategical  advantages  in  case  those 
disputes  should  lead  to  a  rupture,  which  will  not  be  initiated 
by  the  Cabinet  at  Washington.  These  places  are  within  a 
few  hours'  sail  of  the  coast. ;  they  are  healthy,  and  can  be 
easily  supplied,  as  long  as  the  United  States  fleet  can  keep 
the  sea  and  cover  the  movements  of  its  transports.  Their 
occupation  in  force  cannot  be  taken  as  an  act  of  open  war, 
while  it  is  undoubtedly  an  alarming  menace,  which  will 
keep  the  Confederates  in  a  state  of  constant  apprehension 
and  preparation,  leading  to  much  internal  trouble  and  gr -at 
expense.  By  a  confusion  of  metaphor  which  events  may 
justify,  the  eye  to  watch  may  be  turned  into  an  arm  to 
strike. 

The  Southern  Commissioners  are  still  here,  but  they  are 
still  unable  to  procure  even  a  semi-official  recognition  of 
their  existence,  and  all  Jheir  correspondence  has  been  car 
ried  on  through  one  of  their  clerks. 

It  is,  perhaps,  not  necessary  to  add  that  Mr.  Seward  has 
no  intention  of  resigning,  as  has  been  stated,  and  that  there 
is  no  dissention  in  the  Cabinet. 


LETTER    IV. 

NORFOLK,  Va.,  April,  15,  1861. 

SUMTER  has  fallen  at  last.  So  much  may  be  accepted. 
Before  many  hours  I  hope  to  stand  amid  the  ruins  of  a  spot 
which  will  probably  become  historic,  and  has  already  made 
more  noise  in  the  world  than  its  guns,  gallant  as  the  defence 


28  THE    CIVIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA. 

may  have  been.  The  news  will  produce  an  extraordinary 
impression  at  New  York  —  it  will  disconcert  stock-jobbers, 
and  derange  the  most  ingenious  speculations.  But,  consid 
erable  as  may  be  its  results  in  any  part  of  the  Union,  I  ven 
ture  to  say  that  nowhere  will  the  shock  cause  such  painful 
convulsions  as  in  the  Cabinet  at  Washington,  where  there 
appeared  to  exist  the  most  perfect  conviction  that  the  plan 
for  the  relief  of  Sumter  could  not  fail  to  be  successful,  either 
through  the  force  of  the  expedition  provided  for  that  ob 
ject,  or  through  the  unwillingness  of  the  leaders  at  Charles 
ton  to  fire  the  first  shot,  and  to  compel  the  surrender  of  the 
place  by  actual  hostilities.  The  confidence  of  Mr.  Seward 
in  the  strength  of  the  name  and  of  t  e  resources  of  the 
United  States  Federal  Government  must  have  received  a 
rude  blow  ;  but  his  confidences  are  by  no  means  of  a  weakly 
constitution,  and  it  will  be  long  ere  he  can  bring  himself  to 
think  that  all  his  prophecies  must  be  given  up  one  after 
another  before  the  inexorable  logic  of  facts,  with  which  his 
vaticinations  have  been  in  "  irrepressible  conflict."  It  seems 
to  me  that  Mr.  Seward  has  all  along  undervalued  the  spirit 
and  the  resolution  of  the  Southern  Slave  States,  or  that  he 
has  disguised  from  others  the  sense  he  entertains  of  their 
extent  and  vigor.  The  days  assigned  for  the  life  of  Seces 
sion  have  been  numbered  over  and  over  again,  and  Secession 
has  not  yielded  up  the  ghost.  The  "  bravado  "  of  the  South 
has  been  sustained  by  deeds  which  render  retreat  from  its 
advanced  position  impossible.  Mr.  Seward  will  probably 
find  himself  hard  pushed  to  maintain  his  views  in  the  Cab 
inet  in  the  face  of  recent  events,  which  will,  no  doubt,  be 
used  with  effect  and  skill  by  Mr.  Chase,  who  is  understood 
to  be  in  favor  of  letting  the  South  go  as  it  lists  without  any 
more  trouble,  convinced  as  he  is  that  it  is  an  element  of 
weakness  in  the  body  politic,  while  he  would  be  prepared  to 
treat  as  treason  any  attempts  in  the  remaining  States  of  the 
Union  to  act  on  the  doctrine  of  secession.  But  the  Union 
party  must  now  prevail.  As  yet  I  do  not  know  whether  the 
views  I  expressed  relative  to  the  destination  of  the  greater 
part  of  the  troops  and  stores  sent  from  the  North  were  cor 
rect,  for  it  cannot  be  learned  how  many  ships  were  off  Sum 
ter  when  it  surrendered  ;  but,  notwithstanding  what  has 
occurred,  I  reiterate  the  assertion  that  the  Washington  Cab 
inet  always  said  and  say  they  had  no  intention  to  provoke  a 
conflict  there,  and  that  had  the  authorities  at  Charleston 
co  'tinued  their  permission  to  the  garrison  to  procure  sup- 


THE    CIVIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA.  29 

plies  in  their  markets,  there  would  have  been  no  immediate 
action  on  their  part  to  precipitate  the  fight,  though  they 
were  determined  to  hold  it  and  Fort  Pickens,  as  well  as 
Tortugas  and  Key  West,  and  to  victual  and  strengthen  the 
garrison  of  the  former  as  soon  as  they  were  able.  Fate  was 
against  them.  The  decision  and  power  of  their  opponents 
were  against  them.  But  their  defence  will  be  that  they 
could  not  do  anything  till  they  got  troops,  and  ships,  and 
munitions  of  war  together,  and  that  they  did  as  much  as 
they  could  in  a  month.  Sumter,  in  fact,  was  a  mouse  in  the 
jaws  of  the  cat,  and  the  moment  an  attempt  was  made  to 
release  the  prey  by  external  influence,  the  jaws  were  closed 
and  the  mouse  disposed  of.  The  act  will  produce,  I  believe, 
in  spite  of  what  I  see,  a  very  deep  impression  throughout 
all  the  States,  and  will  tend  to  bring  about  an  immediate 
collision  between  the  high-minded  parties  on  both  sides. 
When  Mr.  Lincoln  came  into  office  it  was  discovered  that  a 
promise  had  been  made  by  outgoing  members  of  the  preced 
ing  government  to  surrender  the  Southern  forts.  The  prom 
ise  was  ignored  by  the  incoming  ministry.  The  Southern 
Commissioners  insist  on  it  that,  apart  from  the  compact  of 
Mr.  Buchanan's  Cabinet,  a  pledge  had  been  given  to  the 
South  that  no  attempt  would  be  made  to  reenforce  the  forts 
without  notice  to  the  Government  at  Montgomery  ;  and  so 
far  as  can  be  ascertained  the  authorities  at  Washington  did 
cause  to  be  conveyed  to  the  Southern  Confederation  the  ex 
pression  of  their  intention  to  victual  Sumter :  but  whether 
they  do  so  in  respect  to  their  pledge,  if  it  existed,  or  in  con 
sequence  of  the  decision  at  Charleston  to  prevent  the  issuing 
of  further  supplies  to  the  garrison,  is  uncertain.  The  with 
drawal  of  the  permission  to  market  was  all  but  an  act  of 
war.  If  the  United  States  Government  would  act  on  the 
hypothesis  that  the  Southern  Confederation  was  an  inde- 
pe-  dent  power,  it  would  surely  have  considered  the  pro 
ceeding  as  a  prelude  to  immediate  hostility.  But  the  course 
thus  adopted  arose  out  of  the  preparations  made  by  the 
United  States  Government  in  fitting  out  expeditions,  the 
object  of  which  was  scarcely  dubious.  The  Commissioners 
of  the  Southern  States  at  Washington,  never  acknowledged, 
at  last  met  with  a  decisive  rebuff  just  as  Virginia  saw  her 
representatives  from  the  Convention  on  the  way  to  ask  Mr. 
Lincoln  to  explain  his  intentions.  The  Commissioners  were 
given  to  understand  that  their  presence  was  useless,  and 
that  the  forts  would  be  reenforced  ;  and  on  the  intelligence 
3* 


30  THE    CIVIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA. 

thus  furnished  to  the  Government  at  Montgomery  it  was  re 
solved  to  act  by  summoning  Major  Anderson  to  surrender 
before  succor  could  arrive,  and  in  event  of  refusal  by  com 
pelling  him  to  yield  in  the  sight  of  the  would-be  relieving 
squadron.  As  soon  as  the  Commissioners  found  that  Mr. 
Lincoln  had  made  his  decision,  they  departed  in  no  very 
yielding  temper,  and  washed  their  hands  in  a  valedictory 
paper  of  the  results.  It  was  my  intention  to  have  left 
Washington  early  in  the  week,  and  to  have  reached  Charles 
ton  before  these  gentlemen  had  departed,  but  the  heavy 
storms  and  floods  which  washed  away  part  of  the  railway 
between  Washington  and  Richmond  at  the  other  side  of  the 
Potomac  prevented  my  departure,  and  not  only  arrested  the 
mails  from  the  South  and  the  journey  of  the  Virginian  del 
egates  for  several  days,  but  obliged  the  Commissioners  to 
take  the  round-about  course  by  rail  to  Baltimore,  thence  by 
steamer  to  Norfolk,  Virginia,  and  then  on  by  rail  to  Charles 
ton,  which  I  am  npw  pursuing  one  day  later. 

Although  the  Ministers  at  the  capital  affected  to  discredit 
the  existence  of  any  design  to  seize  upon  the  city,  their  acts 
indicated  an  apprehension  of  danger,  or  at  least  a  desire  to 
take  all  possible  precautions  against  treachery.  The  district 
militia  were  called  out  and  sworn  for  service,  and  the  result 
showed  that  there  were  more  citizens  in  the  ranks  ready  to 
stand  by  the  Government  than  there  were  Secessionists  who 
would  not  defend  it.  Tuesday,  Wednesday,  and  Thursday 
last  were  very  busy  days.  The  companies  forming  the  bat 
talions  of  the  district  militia  were  mustered  and  marched 
off  from  their  various  quarters  to  the  inclosure  in  front  of 
the  War  Department,  where  they  took  or  refused  the  oath 
of  service,  as  the  humor  moved  them.  It  is  scarcely  possi 
ble  to  imagine  a  more  heterogeneous-looking  body  of  men ; 
the  variety  of  uniform,  of  clothing,  and  of  accoutrements 
was  as  great  as  if  a  specimen  squad  had  been  taken  from  the 
battalions  of  the  Grand  Army  of  1812.  The  general  effect 
of  the  men  and  of  their  habiliments  is  decidedly  French, 
and  there  is  even  a  small  company  of  Zouaves,  but  I  cannot 
understand  how  these  little  independent  bodies  are  to  be 
brought  into  line  of  battle,  or  depended  on  for  united  action. 
On  the  days  above  mentioned  the  monotony  of  the  wide,  life 
less  streets  was  broken  at  intervals  by  the  tap  of  the  drum, 
beating  a  pas  in  the  French  fashion,  and  then  came  the 
crowd  of  idlers  who  are  fond  of  cheap  martial  display.  To 
a  company  of  forty  rank  and  file  there  are  generally  t\vo 


THE    CIVIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA.  31 

drummers  and  six  or  seven  officers  or  more,  and  the  glory  of 
epaulettes  shines  out  bravely  through  the  cloud  of  French 
gray,  and   light   and   dark  blue  capotes.     The  musters  are 
not,  I  am   told,  as  they  should  be.     There   are  some  pale 
faces,  rounded  shoulders,  and  weak  frames  in  the  ranks,  but 
the  majority  are  very  fair  specimens  of  a  fine  race  of  men, 
and  some  companies   were  composed  of  soldier-like,  stout 
fellows,  who  only  required  active  service  to  set  them  up  for 
any  military  duty.     Not  a  fourth  of  those  bound  to  serve 
were  ready,  however,  to  come  forward  and  fight  for  the  Gov 
ernment  at  Washington;  and  it   is   probable  that  nothing 
short  of  a  struggle  for  life  or  death  would  induce  one-half 
to  take  the  field.     Not  one-half  of  the  militia  is  properly 
armed.     .It  is  a  great  army  on  paper  ;  no  army  in  the  world 
is  so  magnificently  officered,  even  in  proportion  to  its  num 
bers.     The  strength  of  the  militia  of  the  whole  of  the  ex- 
United   States   is   nearly  3,000,000  men  of  all  ranks.      Of 
these   there   are  no   less    than   3,833  generals  of  all  sorts, 
9,800  colonels  and  field  officers,  38,680  captains  and  sub 
alterns.     Kentucky  boasts  of  188  generals,  New  York  has 
not  less  than  392,  Michigan  is  rich  in  383  generals,  and  so 
on.     But,  unless  there  were  some  popular  passion  to  excite 
the  country,  the  actual  force  available  for  the  field  would  be 
a  fractional  part  of  these  grand  totals.     The  American  Mi 
nerva  which  sprang  from  the  womb  of  the  great  Revolution 
ary  War  with  panoply  of  proof,  believes  that  she  is  invinci 
ble,  and  there   is   unquestionably   a  strong   military  spirit 
among  the  people,  generated  by  the  instances  which  attend 
ed  their  national  birth,  and  developed   by  the  subsequent 
small  wars  in  which  they  have  been  engaged  with  rather 
impotent  enemies.     Whether  this  spirit  will  be  called  forth 
in  the  North  and  West  as  largely  as  it  unquestionably  has 
been  in  the  South,  remains  to  be  seen.     The  evidences  of 
the  near  approach  of  a  civil  war  are  now  beyond  all  dispute, 
but  the  nature  of  the  conflict  will  depend  on  the  steps  taken 
by  the  belligerents.     If  the  Southern  States  await  invasion 
they  fight  over  a  loaded  mine.     To  avoid   the  horrors  of  a 
conflict  on  their  own  soil,  they  will  probably  seek  to  make 
good  their  boast  of  marching  upon  Washington  ;  but  wheth 
er  they  will  reach  it  is  quite  another  matter.     The  present 
means  of  defending  it  are  very  contemptible  ;  but  vast  pop 
ulations  are  close  at  hand  which  can  furnish  thousands  of 
men   for  its  protection.     The   city  contains    no   stragetical 
points,  and  in  a  military  sense  its  possession  is  not  so  impor- 


32  THE    CIVIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA. 

tant  that  it  would  be  worth  while  to  risk  all  to  gain  it ;  but 
its  political  significance  is  enormous,  and  it  is  likely  enough 
that  the  Capital  will  become  the  object  of  military  demonstra 
tions  on  both  sides.  With  the  Potomac  and  Chesapeake  Bay 
strongly  held  by  the  Federal  Government,  Virginia,  in  case 
she  casts  in  her  lot  with  the  South,  will  find  herself  menaced 
in  the  most  formidable  manner.  Southern  men  have  com 
plained  to  me  in  terms  of  the  strongest  indignation,  that 
Virginia  Secessionists  have  applied  to  South  Carolina  for 
five  thousand  men  to  enable  them  to  seize  the  forts  which 
command  the  rivers  and  the  sea-coast.  It  proves  that  little 
active  aid  can  be  expected  from  that  State  if  the  Confederate 
party  cannot  do  that  little  piece  of  business  on  their  own 
account. 

From  the  date  of  this  letter  it  will  be  seen  that  I  am  on 
my  way  to  the  South  ;  and,  although  I  shall  not  arrive  in 
time  to  give  any  account  of  the  recent  operations  against 
Fort  Sumter,  I  hope  to  gain  some  insight  into  the  actual 
condition  of  the  army  of  the  Confederate  States. 

On  Friday  evening  I  bade  good-by  to  Washington,  and 
none  of  the  Ministers  had  any  idea  that  Sumter  had  been 
attacked,  nor  had  Lord  Lyons  received  any  intelligence  from 
Charleston. 


LETTER    V. 

CHARLESTON,  S.  C.,  April  21,  1861. 

I  FIND  some  consolation  for  the  disappointment  of  not 
arriving  in  time  to  witness  the  attack  upon  Fort  Sumter  in 
describing  the  condition  of  the  work  soon  after  Major  An 
derson  surrendered  it.  Already  I  have  upon  my  table  a 
pamphlet  entitled  "  The  Battle  of  Fort  Sumter  and  First 
Victory  of  the  Southern  Troops,"  &c. ;  several  "  poems," 
and  a  variety  of  versicules,  songs,  and  rhetorical  exercitations 
upon  this  event,  which,  however  important  as  a  political  de 
monstration,  is  of  small  value  in  a  military  sense,  except  in 
so  far  as  the  bloodless  occupation  of  a  position  commanding 
Charleston  Harbor  is  concerned.  It  may  tend  to  prevent 
any  false  impressions  founded  on.  imperfect  information  to 
state  a  few  facts  connected  with  the  fire  in  the  work;:-and  its 
effects,  which  will  interest,  at  least,  some  military  readers. 


THE    CIVIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA. 

In  the  first  place,  it  may  be  well  to  admit  that  the  military 
preparations  and  positions   of  the  South  Carolinians  were 
more  formidable  than  one  was  prepared   to  expect  on  the 
part  of  a   small    State,    without   any   considerable   internal 
organization  or  resources.     This  comparative  efficiency  was 
due  mainly  to  General  Beauregard  and  his  assistant  engineer, 
Major  Whiting,  who  are  both  professional  engineer  officers 
of   the   United    States   Army,  and  who    had    capacity   and 
influence  enough  to  direct  the  energies  of  the  undisciplined 
masses  in  the  proper  direction,  instead  of  allowing  them  to 
rush  on  their  fate  in  the  perilous  essay  of  an  escalade,  as 
they  intended.     The  State  of  South  Carolina  had  for  a  long 
time  past  been  accumulating  arms  and  munitions  of  war,  and 
it  may  b3  said  that  ever  since  the  nullification  contest  she 
had  permitted  herself  to  dwell  on  the  idea  of  ultimate  seces 
sion,  to  be  effected  by  force,  if  necessary.     When  General 
Beauregard  and   Major  Whiting  came  here,  the  works   in 
tended  to  resist  the  fleet  and  to  crush  the  fort  were  in  a  very 
imperfect  state.     Major  Anderson  and  his  officers  had  a  true 
professional  contempt  for  the  batteries  of  the  civilians  and 
militiamen,  which   was   in   some   measure  justifiable.     One 
morning,  however,  as  they  took  their  survey  of  the  enemy's 
'  labors  for  the  previous  night,  they  perceived  a  change  had 
come  over  the  design  of  their  works.     That  "  some  one  who 
knows   his    business   is    over    there"   was  evident.     Their 
strange  relationship  with  those  who  were  preparing  to   de 
stroy  them  if  possible,  however,  prevented  their  recourse  to 
the  obvious  means  which  were  then  in  abundance   in   their 
hands  to  avert  the  coming  danger.     Had  Major  Anderson 
maintained  a  well-regulated  fire  on  the  enemy  the  moment 
they  began  to  throw  up  their  batteries   and   prepare   Fort 
Moid  trie  against  him,  he  could  have  made  their  progress 
very  slow  and  exceedingly  laborious,  and  have  marked  it  at 
every  step  with  blood.      His  command  over  the  ground  was 
very  decided,  but  he  had,  it  is  to  be  supposed,  no  authority 
to  defend  himself  in  the  only  way  in  which  it  could  be  done. 
"Too  late"  —  that  fatal   phrase  —  was  the  echo   to  every 
order  which  came  from  the  seat  of  government  at  Washing 
ton.      Meantime    the    South    Carolinians    worked    at    their 
batteries,  and  were  soon  able  to  obtain  cover  on  the   soft 
sandy  plains  on  which  they  were  planting  their  guns  and 
mortars.     They  practised   their  men  at   the  guns,  stacked 
shot  and  shell,  and  furnished   their   magazines,  and    drilled 
their   raw  levies   with  impunity   within  fourteen    hundred 


34  THE    CIVIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA. 

yards  of  the  fort.  We  all  know  what  impunity  is  worth 
in  offensive  demonstrations.  It  is  a  powerful  agent  some 
times  in  creating  enthusiasm.  Every  day  more  volunteers 
flocked  to  the  various  companies,  or  created  new  associations 
of  armed  men,  and  the  heterogeneous  and  motley  mass  began 
to  assume  some  resemblance  to  an  army,  however  irregular. 
At  the  present  moment  Charleston  is  like  a  place  in  the 
neighborhood  of  a  camp  where  military  and  volunteer  tailors 
are  at  work  trying  experiments  in  uniforms,  and  sending  in 
their  animated  models  for  inspection.  There  is  an  endless 
variety  —  often  of  ugliness  —  in  dress  and  equipment  and 
nomenclature  among  these  companies.  The  head-dress  is 
generally,  however,  a  smart  cap  like  the  French  kepi  ;  the 
tunic  is  of  different  cuts,  colors,  facings,  and  materials  — 
green  with  gray  and  yellow,  gray  with  orange  and  black  and 
white,  blue  with  white,  and  yellow  facings,  roan,  brown, 
burnt  sienna,  and  olive  —  jackets,  frocks,  tunics,  blouses, 
cloth,  linen,  tweed,  flannel.  The  officers  are  generally  in 
blue  frocks  and  brass  buttons,  with  red  sashes,  the  rank 
being  indicated  by  gold  lace  parallelograms  on  the  shoulder 
straps,  which  are  like  those  in  use  in  the  Russian  army. 
The  arms  of  the  mer;  seem  tolerably  well  kept  and  in  good 
order.  Many,  however,  still  shoulder  "  White  Bess  "  —  the 
old  smooth-bore  musket  with  unbrowned  barrel.  The  fol 
lowing  is  an  official  return,  which  I  am  enabled  to  present 
to  you  through  the  courtesy  of  the  authorities,  showing  the 
actual  number  of  men  under  arms  yesterday  in  and  around 
Charleston  :  — 

MORRIS  ISLAND.  —  17th  Regiment,  700  men;  1st  Regiment,  950 
men;  2d  Regiment,  975  men.  Total,  2625. 

SULLIVAN'S  ISLAND.  —  5th  Regiment,  1,075  men;  detachment  of  8th 
Regiment,  250  men;  detachment  of  6th  Regiment,  200  men;  cavalry 
and  others,  225  men.  Total,  1,750. 

Stone  and  other  points,  750  men;  Charleston,  1,900  men;  Columbia, 
1 ,950  men. 

Men. 
Morris  Island,         .         .         ..        .        .         .         .         2,625 

Sullivan's  Island, 1,750 

Stone  and  other  points,  .         .        .        .        .         .  750 

Total,       .        .        *        .        ...        -.        .     5,125 

Columbia,       .        .        .         .  •  /      •         1,^0 

Charleston,        .        .        .        .         .        .        •.    '    .     1,900 

Total,  .        -.         .         .         .        .         .         .         8,975 

In  field  at  the  time  of  report,     .        .       ..    ,    *         .     3,027 

Total,  .        .  "  .       12,002 


THE    CIVIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA.  35 

The  regiments  mentioned  here  are  composed  of  the  vari 
ous  companies  raised  in  different  localities  with  different 
names,  but  the  §.tate  regulars  are  in  expectation  that  they 
will  soon  be  made  portions  of  the  regular  army  of  the  Con 
federate  States,  which  is  in  course  of  formation.  There  are, 
I  believe,  only  fifty-five  thousand  registered  voters  in  South 
Carolina.  The  number  of  men  furnished  by  them  is  a  fair 
indication  of  the  zeal  for  the  cause  which  animates  the  pop 
ulation.  The  physique  of  the  troops  is  undeniably  good. 
Now  and  then  undersized,  weakly  men  may  be  met  with, 
but  the  great  majority  of  the  companies  consist  of  rank  and 
file  exceeding  the  average  stature  of  Europeans,  and  very 
well  built  and  muscular.  The  men  run  very  large  down 
h'ere.  Nothing,  indeed,  can  be  more  obvious  when  one 
looks  at  the  full-grown,  healthy,  handsome  race  which  de- 
velopes  itself  in  the  streets,  in  the  bar-rooms,  and  in  the 
hotel  halls,  than  the  error  of  the  argument,  which  is  mainly 
used  by  the  Carolinians  themselves,  that  white  men  cannot 
thrive  in  their  State.  In  limb,  figure,  height,  weight,  they 
are  equal  to  any  people  I  have  ever  seen,  and  their  features 
are  very  regular  and  pronounced.  They  are,  indeed,  as  un 
like  the  ideal  American  of  our  caricaturists  and  our  stage  as 
is  the  "»»7or"  of  the  Porte  St.  Martin  to  the  English  gen 
tleman.  Some  of  this  superiority  is  due  to  the  fact  that 
the  bulk  of  the  white  population  here  are  in  all  but  name 
aristocrats  or  rather  oligarchs.  The  State  is  but  a  gigantic 
Sparta,  in  which  the  helotry  are  marked  by  an  indelible 
difference  of  color  and  race  from  the  masters.  The  white 
population,  which  is  not  land  and  slaveholding  and  agricul 
tural,  is  very  small  and  very  insignificant.  The  masters 
enjoy  every  advantage  which  can  conduce  to  the  physical 
excellence  of  a  people,  and  to  the  cultivation  of  the  graces 
and  accomplishments  of  life,  even  though  they  are  rather 
disposed  to  neglect  purely  intellectual  enjoyments  and 
tastes.  Many  of  those  who  serve  in  the  ranks  are  men 
worth  from  £5,000  to  £10,000  a  year  —  at  least,  so  I 
was  told  —  and  men  were  pointed  out  to  me  who  were  said 
to  be  worth  far  more.  One  private  feeds  his  company  on 
French  pates  and  Madeira,  another  provides  his  comrades 
with  unlimited  champagne,  most  grateful  on  the  arid  sand 
hill  ;  a  third,  with  a  more  soldierly  view  to  their  permanent 
rather  than  occasional  efficiency,  purchases  for  the  men  of 
his  "  guard  "  a  complete  equipment  of  Enfield  rifles.  How 
long  the  zeal  and  resources  of  these  gentlemen  will  last  it 


36  THE    CIVIL   WAR    IN    AMERICA. 

may  not  be  easy  to  say.  At  present  they  would  prove  for 
midable  to  any  enemy,  except  a  regular  army  on  the  plain 
and  in  the  open  field,  but  they  are  not  provided  with  field 
artillery  or  with  adequate  cavalry,  and  they  are  not  accus 
tomed  to  act  in  concert  and  in  large  bodies. 

Yesterday  morning  I  waited  on  General  Beauregard,  who 
is  commanding  the  forces  of  South  Carolina.  His  aides-de 
camp,  Mr.  Manning,  Mr.  Chesnut,  Mr.  Porcher  Miles,  and 
Colonel  Lucas,  accompanied  me.  Of  these,  the  former  has 
been  Governor  of  this  State,  the  next  has  been  a  Senator,  the 
third  a  member  of  Congress.  They  are  all  volunteers,  and 
are  gentlemen  of  position  in  the  State,  and  the  fact  that  they 
are  not  only  content  but  gratified  to  act  as  aides  to  the  pro 
fessional  soldier,  is  the  best  proof  of  the  reality  of  the  spirit 
which  animates  the  class  they  represent.  Mr.  Lucas  is  a 
gentleman  of  the  State,  who  is  acting  as  aid-de-camp  to 
Governor  Pickens.  Passing  through  the  dense  crowd  which, 
talking,  smoking,  and  reading  newspapers,  fills  the  large 
hall  on  Mills's  house,  we  emerge  on  the  dirty  streets,  suffi 
ciently  broad,  and  lined  with  trees  protected  by  wooden 
sheathings  at  the  base.  The  houses,  not  very  lofty,  are 
clean  and  spacious,  and  provided  with  verandahs  facing  the 
South  as  far  as  possible.  The  trees  give  the  streets  the  air 
of  a  boulevard,  and  the  town  has  somehow  or  other  a  rem 
iniscence  of  the  Hague  about  it,  which  I  cannot  explain  or 
account  for  satisfactorily.  The  headquarters  are  in  a  large, 
airy,  public  building,  once  devoted  to  an  insurance  com 
pany's  operations,  or  to  the  accommodation  of  the  public 
fire  companies.  There  was  no  guard  at  the  door  ;  officers 
and  privates  were  passing  to  and  fro  in  the  hall,  part  of 
which  was  cut  off  by  canvass  screens,  so  as  to  form  rooms 
for  departments  of  the  Horse'  Guards  of  South  Carolina. 
Into  one  of  these  we  turned,  and  found  the  desks  occupied 
by  officers  in  uniform,  waiting  despatches  and  copying  docu 
ments  with  all  the  abandon  which  distinguishes  the  true 
soldier  when  he  can  get  at  printed  forms  and  Government 
stationery.  In  another  moment  we  were  ushered  into  a 
smaller  room,  and  were  presented  to  the  General,  who  was 
also  seated  at  his  desk.  Any  one  accustomed  to  soldiers 
can  readily  detect  the  "  real  article  "  from  the  counterfeit, 
and  when  General  Beauregard  stood  up  to  welcome  us,  it 
was  patent  he  was  a  man  capable  of  greater  things  than 
taking  Sumter.  He  is  a  squarely-built,  lean  man,  of  about 
forty  years  of  age,  with  broad  shoulders,  and  legs  "  made  to 


THE    CIVIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA.  37 

fit "  a  horse,  of  middle  height,  and  his  head  is  covered  with 
thick  hair,  cropped  close,   and  showing  the   bumps,  which 
are  reflective  and   combative,  with  a  true   Gallic  air,  at  the 
back  of  the  skull ;   the  forehead,  broad  and  well-developed, 
projects  somewhat  over   the  keen,  eager,  dark  eyes  ;    the 
face  is  very  thin,  with  very  high  cheek-bones,  a  well-shaped 
nose,  slightly  aquiline,  and  a  large,  rigid,  sharply  cut  mouth, 
set  above  a  full  fighting  chin.     In  the  event  of  any  impor 
tant  operations  taking  place,  the  name  of  this  officer  will,  I 
feel  assured,  be  heard  often  enough  to   be   my  excuse   for 
this  little  sketch  of  his  outward  man.    He  was  good  enough 
to  detail   his  chief  engineer  officer  to  go  with  me  over  the 
works,  and  I  found  in  Major  Whiting  a  most  able  guide 
and   agreeable  companion.     It  is  scarcely  worth  while   to 
waste    time  in  describing  the  position  of  Charleston.     It 
lies  as   low  as  Venice,  the  look   of  which  it  rather  affects 
from  a  distance,  with  long,  sandy  islands  stretching  out  as 
arms  to  close  up   the  approaches,  and  lagunes   cutting  into 
the  marshy  shores.     On  a   sandy  island  and  spit  on  the  left 
hand  shore  stands   Fort  Moultrie.     On  the  southern   side, 
on  another  sandy  island,  are  the  lines  of  the  batteries  which, 
probably,  were  most  dangerous,   from  their  proximity  and 
position,   to   the  unprotected  face   of    Sumter.       The   fort 
itself  is  built  in  the   tideway,  on  a  rocky  point,  which  has 
been  increased  by  artificial  deposits  of  granite  chips.     Em 
barked,  with  a  few  additions  to  our  original  party,  on  board 
a  small  steamer,  called  the  Lady  Davis,  we  first  proceeded  to 
Morris  Island,  about  3f  miles  from  Charleston.     Our  steam 
er  was  filled  with  commissariat   stores    for  the   troops,    of 
whom  4,000  were  said  to  be  encamped  among  the  sand-hills. 
Any  one  who  has  ever   been  at  Southport,  or  has  seen  the 
dunes  about   Dunkirk  or  Calais,  will  have  a  good  idea  of 
the  place.     Our  landing  was  opposed  by  a  guard   of  stout 
volunteers,  with  crossed   firelocks ;  but   they  were   satisfied 
by  the   General's  authority,   and   we  proceeded,  ankle-deep  . 
in  the   soft,  white  sand,  to  visit  the  batteries  which  played 
on  the  landward  face  of  Sumter.     They  are  made  of  sand 
bags  for  the  most  part,  well  placed   in  the  sand-hills,  with 
good  traverses  and  well-protected  magazines,  the  embrasures 
being  faced  with  palmetto  logs,  which  do  not  splinter  when 
struck  by  shot.     It  did  not,  however,  require  much  investi 
gation  to  show  that  these  works  would   be   greatly  injured 
by  a  fire  of  vertical  and  horizontal  shell  from  the  fort,  and 
that  the  distance  of  their  armament  would  render  it  difficult 
4 


38  THE    CIVIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA. 

to  breach  the  solid  walls  which  were  opposed  to  them  at 
upward  of  1,200  yards  away.  However,  there  were  two 
powerful  mortar  batteries,  which  could  have  done  great 
damage  if  they  were  well  served,  and  have  made  the 
terreplein  and  parade  of  the  fort  a  complete  "  shell  trap  " 
unless  the  mortars  were  injured.  The  civilians  and  militia 
men  set  greater  store  on  the  Iron  Battery  at  Cummings' 
Point,  which  is  the  part  of  the  island  nearest  to  the  fort, 
but  the  fire  of  heavy  guns  would  have  soon  destroyed  their 
confidence.  It  consists  of  yellow  pine  logs  placed  as  verti 
cal  uprights.  The  roof,  of  the  same  material,  slopes  from 
the  top  of  the  uprights  to  the  sand  facing  the  enemy  ;  over 
it  are  dovetailed  bars  of  railroad  iron,  of  the  T  pattern, 
from  top  to  bottom,  all  riveted  down  in  the  most  secure 
manner.  On  the  front  the  railroad  iron  roof  and  incline 
present  an  angle  of  about  thirty  degrees.  There  are  three 
portholes  with  iron  shutters.  When  opened  by  the  action 
of  a  lever  the  muzzles  of  the  columbiads  fill  up  the  space 
completely.  The  columbiad  guns  with  which  this  battery 
is  equipped  bear  on  the  south  wall  of  Sumter  at  an  angle. 
The  inclined  side  of  the  battery  has  been  struck  by  six 
shots,  the  effect  of  two  of  which  is  enough  to  demonstrate 
that  the  fire  of  the  guns  en  barbette  would  have  been  de 
structive.  The  columbiad  is  a  kind  of  Dahlgren  —  that  is,  a 
piece  of  ordinance  very  thick  in  the  breech,  and  lightened 
off  gradually  from  the  trunnions  to  the  muzzle.  The  plat 
forms  were  rather  light,  but  the  carriages  were  solid  and 
well  made,  and  the  elevating  screws  or  hitches  of  the  guns 
were  in  good  order.  The  mortars  are  of  various  calibres 
and  descriptions,  mostly  8-inch  and  10-inch;  and  it  is  said 
there  were  seventeen  of  them  in  position  and  working 
against  the  fort,  and  that  thirty-five  guns  were  from  time  to 
time  directed  against  it.  Shot  and  shell  appeared  to  be 
abundant  enough.  The  works  are  all  small  detatched  bat 
teries,  with  sand-bag  merlons,  and  open  at  the  gorge,  and 
they  extend  for  four  miles  along  the  shore  of  the  island. 
The  camps  are  pitched  most  irregularly  between  the  sand 
hills  —  tents  of  all  shapes  and  sizes,  in  the  fashion  called 
higgledy-piggledy,  here  and  there,  in  knots  and  groups,  in 
a  way  that  would  drive  an  Indian  quartermaster-general 
mad.  Bones  of  beef  and  mutton,  champagne  and  wine 
bottles,  obstructed  the  approaches,  which  were  of  a  nature 
to  afflict  Dr.  Sutherland  and  Sir  John  M'Neill  most  bitterly, 
and  to  suggest  the  reflection  that  the  army  which  so  utterly 


THE    CIVIL    WAR    IX    AMERICA.  39 

neglected  sanitary  regulations  could  not  long  exist  as  soon 
as  the  sun  gained  full  power.  They  say,  however,  the  men 
are  not  sickly,  and  that  these  sand-hills  are  the  most  healthy 
spots  about  Charleston.  The  men  were  occupied  as  soldiers 
generally  are  when  they  have  nothing  to  do  —  lounging  or 
lying  on  the  straw  and  plank  carpets,  smoking,  reading, 
sleeping.  The  owners  of  the  tents  give  them  various  names, 
of  which  "  The  Lions'  Den,"  "  The  Tigers'  Lair,"  "  The 
Eagles'  Nest,"  "  Mars'  Delight,"  are  fair  specimens,  and 
these  are  done  in  black  on  the  white  calico.  In  one  which 
we  visited,  the  hospitable  inmates  were  busily  engaged  in 
brewing  claret  cup,  and  Bordeaux,  lemons,  sugar,  ice,  and 
Champagne,  and  salads  were  in  abundance,  and  at  the  end 
of  the  tent  was  a  Bar,  where  anything  else  in  reason  could 
be  had  for  the  asking,  though  water  was  not  so  plentiful. 
At  one  of  the  batteries  the  great  object  of  attraction  was 
a  gun  made  on  Captain  Blakeley's  principle,  by  Messrs.  Faw- 
cett,  Preston  &  Co.,  of  Liverpool,  which  was  only  put  in 
battery  the  day  before  the  fire  opened,  and  the  effect  of 
which  on  the  masonry  is  said  to  have  been  very  powerful. 
It  is  a  12-pounder —  the  same  which  was  tried  last  year,  1 
think  —  and  bears  a  brass  plate  with  the  inscription,  "  Pre 
sented  to  South  Carolina  by  one  of  her  citizens."  It  is  re 
markable  enough  that  the  vessel  which  carried  it  lay  in  the 
midst  of  the  United  States  war  vessels  at  the  mouth  of  the 
harbor. 

Having  satisfied  our  curiosity  as  well  as  time  and  a  sand 
storm  permitted,  we  got  in  a  row-boat  and  proceeded  to 
Sumter.  At  a  distance,  the  fort  bears  some  resemblance 
to  Fort  Paul  at  Sevastopol.  It  is  a  truncated  pentagon, 
with  three  faces  armed  —  that  which  is  toward  Morris  Island 
being  considered  safe  from  attack,  as  the  work  was  only  in 
tended  to  resist  an  approach  from  the  sea.  It  is  said  to 
have  cost  altogether  more  than  £200,000  sterling.  The 
walls  are  of  solid  brick  and  concrete  masonry,  built  close  to 
the  edge  of  the  water,  sixty  feet  high,  and  from  eight  to 
twelve  feet  in  thickness,  and  carry  three  tiers  of  guns  on  the 
north,  east,  and  west  exterior  sides.  Its  weakest  point  is 
on  the  south  side,  where  the  masonry  is  not  protected  by 
any  flank  fire  to  sweep  the  wharf.  The  work  is  designed 
for  an  armament  of  one  hundred  and  forty  pieces  of  ord 
nance  of  all  calibres.  Two  tiers  are  under  bomb-proof 
casemates,  and  the  third  or  upper  tier  is  en  barbette;  the 
lower  tier  is  intended  for  42-pounders  paixhan  guns ;  the 


40  THE    CIVIL   WAR    IN    AMERICA. 

second  tier  for  eight  and  ten-inch  columbiads,  for  throwing 
solid  or  hollow  shot,  and  the  upper  tier  for  mortars  and 
guns.  But  only  seventy-five  are  now  mounted.  Eleven 
paixhan  guns  are  among  that  number,  nine  of  them  command 
ing  Fort  Moultrie.  Some  of  the  columbiads  are  not  mount 
ed.  Four  of  the  32-pounder  barbette  guns  are  on  pivot 
carriages,  and  others  have  a  sweep  of  180°.  The  walls  are 
pierced  everywhere  for  musketry.  The  magazine  contains 
several  hundred  barrels  of  gunpowder,  and  a  supply  of  shot, 
powder,  and  shells.  The  garrison  was  amply  supplied  with 
water  from  artificial  wells.  The  war  garrison  of  the  fort 
ought  to  be  at  least  six  hundred  men,  but  only  seventy- 
nine  were  within  its  walls,  with  the  laborers  —  one  hundred 
and  nine  all  told  —  at  the  time  of  the  attack. 

The  walls  of  the  fort  are  dented  on  all  sides  by  shot 
marks,  but  in  no  instance  was  any  approach  made  to  a 
breach,  and  the  greatest  damage,  at  one  of  the  angles  on 
the  south  face,  did  not  extend  more  than  two  feet  into  the 
masonry,  which  is  of  very  fine  brick.  The  parapet  is,  of 
course,  damaged,  but  the  casemate  embrasures  are  uninjured. 
On  landing  at  the  wharf  we  perceived  that  the  granite  cop 
ings  had  suffered  more  than  the  brickwork,  and  that  the 
stone  had  split  up  and  splintered  where  it  was  struck.  The 
ingenuity  of  the  defenders  was  evident  even  here.  They 
had  no  mortar  with  which  to  fasten  up  the  stone  slabs  they 
had  adapted  as  blinds  to  the  windows  of  the  unprotected 
south  side  ;  but  Major  Anderson,  or  his  subordinate,  Captain 
Foster,  had  closed  the  slabs  in  with  lead,  which  he  procured 
from  some  water  piping,  and  had  rendered  them  proof 
against  escalade,  which  he  was  prepared  also  to  resent  by 
extensive  mines  laid  under  the  wharf  and  landing-place,  to 
be  fired  by  friction  tubes  and  lines  laid  inside  the  work. 
He  had  also  prepared  a  number  of  shells  for  the  same  pur 
pose,  to  act  as  hand-grenades,  with  friction  tubes  and  lan 
yards,  when  hurled  down  from  the  parapet  on  his  assailants. 
The  entrance  to  the  fort  was  blocked  up  by  masses  of  ma 
sonry,  which  had  been  thrown  down  from  the  walls  of  the 
burnt  barracks  and  officers'  quarters,  along  the  south  side. 
A  number  of  men  were  engaged  in  digging  up  the  mines  at 
the  wharf,  and  others  were  busied  in  completing  the  ruin  of 
the  tottering  walls,  which  were  still  so  hot  that  it  was 
necessary  to  keep  a  hose  of  water  playing  on  part  of  the 
brickwork.  To  an  uninitiated  eye  it  would  seem  as  if  the 
fort  was  untenable,  but,  in  reality,  in  spite  of  the  destruc- 


THE    CIVIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA.  41 

tion  done  to  it,  a  stout  garrison,  properly  supplied,  would 
have  been  in  no  danger  from  anything,  except  the  explosion 
of  the  magazine,  of  which  the  copper  door  was  jammed  by 
the  heat  at  the  time  of  the  surrender.  Exclusive  of  the 
burning  of  the  quarters  and  the  intense  heat,  there  was  no 
reason  for  a  properly  handled  and  sufficient  force  to  surren 
der  the  place.  It  is  needless  to  say  Major  Anderson  had 
neither  one  nor  the  other.  He  was  in  all  respects  most 
miserably  equipped.  His  guns  were  without  screws,  scales, 
or  tangents,  so  that  his  elevations  were  managed  by  rude 
wedges  of  deal,  and  his  scales  marked  in  chalk  on  the 
breech  of  the  guns,  and  his  distances  and  bearings  scratched 
in  the  same  way  on  the  side  of  the  embrasures.  He  had 
not  a  single  fuse  for  his  shells,  and  he  tried  in  vain  to  im 
provise  them  by  filling  pieces  of  bored-out  pine  with  caked 
gunpowder.  His  cartridges  were  out,  and  he  was  compelled 
to  detail  some  few  of  his  men  to  make  them  out  of  shirts, 
stockings,  and  jackets.  He  had  not  a  single  mortar,  and  he 
was  compelled  to  the  desperate  expedient  of  planting  long 
guns  in  the  ground  at  an  angle  of  45  degrees,  for  which 
he  could  find  no  shell,  as  he  had  no  fuses  which  could  be 
fired  with  safety.  He  had  no  sheers  to  mount  his  guns, 
and  chance  alone  enabled  him  to  do  so  by  drifting  some 
large  logs  down  with  the  tide  against  Sumter.  Finally,  he 
had  not  even  one  engine  to  put  out  a  fire  in  quarters.  I 
walked  carefully  over  the  parade,  and  could  detect  the 
marks  of  only  seven  shells  in  the  ground  ;  but  Major  Whit 
ing  told  me  the  orders  were  to  burst  the  shells  over  the 
parapet,  so  as  to  frustrate  any  attempt  to  work  the  barbette 
guns.  Two  of  these  were  irrjured  by  shot,  and  one  was 
overturned,  apparently  by  its  own  recoil ;  but  there  was  no 
injury  done  inside  any  of  the  casemates  to  the  guns  or 
works.  The  shell  splinters  had  all  disappeared,  carried  off, 
I  am  told,  as  "  trophies."  Had  Major  Anderson  been  prop 
erly  provided,  so  that  he  could  have  at  once  sent  his  men 
to  the  guns,  opened  fire  from  those  in  barbette,  thrown  shell 
and  hot  shot,  kept  relays  to  all  his  casemates,  and  put  out 
fires  as  they  arose  from  red-hot  shot  or  shell,  he  must,  I  have 
no  earthly  doubt,  have  driven  the  troops  off  Morris  Island, 
burnt  out  Fort  Moultrie,  and  silenced  the  enemy's  fire. 
His  loss  might  have  been  considerable ;  that  of  the  Con 
federates  must  have  been  very  great.  As  it  was,  not  a  life 
was  lost  by  actual  fire  on  either  side.  A  week  hence  and 
it  will  be  impossible  for  a  fleet  to  do  anything  except 
4* 


42  THE    CIVIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA. 

cover  the  descent  of  an  army  here,  and  they  must  lie 
off,  at  the  least,  four  miles  from  the  nearest  available 
beach. 


LETTER     VI. 

THE  STATE  OF  SOUTH  CAROLINA. 

APRIL  30,  1861. 

NOTHING  I  could  say  can  be  worth  one  fact  which  has 
forced  itself  upon  my  mind  in  reference  to  the  sentiments 
which  prevail  among  the  gentlemen  of  this  State.  I  have 
been  among  them  several  days.  I  have  visited  their  planta 
tions,  I  have  conversed  with  them  freely  and  fully,  and  I 
have  enjoyed  that  frank,  courteous,  and  graceful  intercourse 
which  constitutes  an  irresistible  charm  of  their  society. 
From  all  quarters  have  come  to  my  ears  the  echoes  of  the 
same  voice ;  it  may  be  feigned,  but  there  is  no  discord  in 
the  note,  and  it  sounds  in  wonderful  strength  and  monotony 
all  over  the  country.  Shades  of  George  III.,  of  North, 
of  Johnson,  of  all  who  contended  against  the  great  rebellion 
which  tore  these  colonies  from  England,  can  you  hear  the 
chorus  which  rings  through  the  State  of  Marion,  Sumter, 
-and  Pinckney,  and  not  clap  your  ghostly  hands  in  triumph  ? 
That  voice  says,  "  If  we  could  only  get  one  of  the  Royal 
race  of  England  to  rule  over  us,  we  should  be  content." 
Let  there  be  no  misconception  on  this  point.  That  senti 
ment,  varied  in  a  hundred  ways,  has  been  repeated  to  me 
over  and  over  again.  There  is  a  general  admission  that 
the  means  to  such  an  end  are  wanting,  and  that  the  desire 
cannot  be  gratified.  But  the  admiration  for  monarchical 
institutions  on  the  English  model,  for  privileged  classes, 
and  for  a  landed  aristocracy  and  gentry,  is  undisguised  and 
apparently  genuine.  With  the  pride  of  having  achieved 
their  independence  is  mingled  in  the  South  Carolinians' 
hearts  a  strange  regret  at  the  result  and  consequences,  and 
many  are  they  who  **  would  go  back  to-morrow  if  we  could." 
An  intense  affection  for  the  British  connection,  a  love  of 
British  habits  and  customs,  a  respect  for  British  sentiment, 
law,  authority,  order,  civilization,  and  literature,  preemi 
nently  distinguish  the  inhabitants  of  this  State,  who,  glory 
ing  in  their  descent  from  ancient  families  on  the  three 


THE    CIVIL    WAR   IN    AMERICA.  43 

islands,  whose  fortunes  they  still  follow,  and  with  whose 
members  they  maintain  not  unfrequently  familiar  relations, 
regard  with  an  aversion  of  which  it  is  impossible  to  give  an 
idea  to  one  who  has  not  seen  its  manifestations,  the  people 
of  New  England  and  the  populations  of  the  Northern 
States,  whom  they  regard  as  tainted  beyond  cure  by  the 
venom  of  "  Puritanism."  Whatever  may  be  the  cause,  this 
is  the  fact  and  the  effect.  "  The  State  of  South  Carolina 
was,"  I  am  told,  "  founded  by  gentlemen."  It  was  not 
established  by  witch-burning  Puritans,  by  cruel  persecut 
ing  fanatics,  who  implanted  in  the  North  the  standard 
of  Torquemada,  and  breathed  into  the  nostrils  of  their 
newly-born  colonies  all  the  ferocity  of  blood-thirstiness  and 
rabid  intolerance  of  the  Inquisition.  It  is  absolutely 
astounding  to  a  stranger,  who  aims  at  the  preservation  of  a 
decent  neutrality,  to  mark  the  violence  of  these  opinions. 

"  If  that  confounded  ship  had  sunk  with  those Pilgrim 

Fathers  on  board,"  says  one,  "  we  never  should  have  been 
driven  to  these  extremities ! "  "  We  could  have  got  on 
with  fanatics  if  they  had  been  either  Christians  or  gentle 
men,"  says  another  ;  "  for  in  the  first  case  they  would  have 
acted  with  common  charity,  and  in  the  second  they  would 
have  fought  when  they  insulted  us  ;  but  there  are  neither 
Christians  nor  gentlemen  among  them  !  "  "  Anything  on 
the  earth!"  exclaims  a  third,  "  any  form  of  government, 
any  tyranny  or  despotism  you  will ;  but  "  —  and  here  is  an 
appeal  more  terrible  than  the  adjuration  of  all  the  Gods  — 
"  nothing  on  earth  shall  ever  induce  us  to  submit  to  any 
union  with  the  brutal,  bigoted  blackguards  of  the  New 
England  States,  who  neither  comprehend  nor  regard  the 
feelings  of  gentlemen !  Man,  woman,  and  child,  we  '11  die 
first."  Imagine  these  and  an  infinite  variety  of  similar 
sentiments  uttered  by  courtly,  well-educated  men,  who  set 
great  store  on  a  nice  observance  of  the  usages  of  society, 
and  who  are  only  moved  to  extreme  bitterness  and  anger 
when  they  speak  of  the  North,  and  you  will  fail  to  conceive 
the  intensity  of  the  dislike  of  the  South  Carolinians  for  the 
Free  States.  There  are  national  antipathies  on  our  side  of 
the  Atlantic  which  are  tolerably  strong,  and  have  been  un 
fortunately  pertinacious  and  long-lived.  The  hatred  of  the 
Italian  for  the  Tedesco,  .of  the  Greek  for  the  Turk,  of  the 
Turk  for  the  Russ,  is  warm  and  fierce  enough  to  satisfy  the 
Prince  of  Darkness,  not  to  speak  of  a  few  little  pet  aver 
sions  among  the  allied  Powers  and  the  atoms  of  composite 


44  THE    CITIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA. 

empires ;  but  they  are  all  mere  indifference  and  neutrality 
of  feeling  compared  to  the  animosity  evinced  by  the 
"  gentry "  of  South  Carolina  for  the  "  rabble  of  the 
North." 

The  contests  of  Cavalier  and  Roundhead,  of  Vendean 
and  Republican,  even  of  Orangeman  and  Croppy,  have  been 
elegant  joustings,  regulated  by  the  finest  rules  of  chivalry, 
compared  with  those  which  North  and  South  will  carry  on 
if  their  deeds  support  their  words.  "Immortal  hate,  the 
study  of  revenge,"  will  actuate  every  blow,  and  never  in 
the  history  of  the  world,  perhaps,  will  go  forth  such  a  dread 
ful  VCB  victis  as  that  which  may  be  heard  before  the  fight 
has  begun.  There  is  nothing  in  all  the  dark  caves  of  hu 
man  passion  so  cruel  and  deadly  as  the  hatred  the  South 
Carolinians  profess  for  the  Yankees.  That  hatred  has  been 
swelling  for  years,  till  it  is  the  very  life-blood  of  the  State. 
It  has  set  South  Carolina  to  work  steadily  to  organize  her 
resources  for  the  struggle  which  she  intended  to  provoke,  if 
it  did  not  come  in  the  course  of  time.  "  Incompatibility  of 
temper  "  would  have  been  sufficient  ground  for  the  divorce, 
and  I  am  satisfied  that  there  has  been  a  deep-rooted  design, 
conceived  in  some  men's  minds  thirty  years  ago,  and  ex 
tended  gradually  year  after  year  to  others,  to  break  away 
from  the  Union  at  the  very  first  opportunity.  The  North 
is  to  South  Carolina  a  corrupt  and  evil  thing,  to  which  for 
long  years  she  has  been  bound  by  burning  chains,  while 
monopolists  and  manufacturers  fed  on  her  tender  limbs. 
She  has  been  bound  in  a  Maxentian  union  to  the  object  she 
loathes.  New  England  is  to  her  the  incarnation  of  moral 
and  political  wickedness  and  social  corruption.  It  is  the 
source  of  everything  which  South  Carolina  hates,  and  of  the 
torrents  of  free  thought  and  taxed  manufactures,  of  Aboli 
tionism  and  of  fillibustering,  which  have  flooded  the  land. 
Believe  a  Southern  man  as  he  believes  himself,  and  you 
must  regard  New  England  and  the  kindred  States  as  the 
birthplace  of  impurity  of  mind  among  men  and  of  unchas- 
tity  in  women  —  the  home  of  Free  Love,  of  Fourierism,  of 
Infidelity,  of  Abolitionism,  of  false  teachings  in  political 
economy  and  in  social  life ;  a  land  saturated  with  the  drip 
pings  of  rotten  philosophy,  with  the  poisonous  infections  of 
a  fanatic  press  ;  without  honor  or  modesty  ;  whose  wisdom 
is  paltry  cunning,  whose  valor  and  manhood  have  been  swal 
lowed  up  in  a  corrupt,  howling  demagogy,  and  in  the  marts 
of  a  dishonest  commerce.  It  is  the  merchants  of  New  York 


THE    CIVIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA.  45 

who  fit  out  ships  for  the  slave-trade,  and  carry  it  on  in 
Yankee  ships.  It  is  the  capital  of  the  North  which  sup 
ports,  and  it  is  Northern  men  who  concoct  and  execute,  the 
filibustering  expeditions  which  have  brought  discredit  on 
the  Slave-holding  States.  In  the  large  cities  people  are 
corrupted  by  itinerant  and  ignorant  lecturers  —  in  the  towns 
and  in  the  country  by  an  unprincipled  press.  The  popula 
tions,  indeed,  know  how  to  read  and  write,  but  they  don't 
know  how  to  think,  and  they  are  the  easy  victims  of  the 
wretched  impostors  on  all  the  'ologies  and  'isms  who  swarm 
over  the  region,  and  subsist  by  lecturing  on  subjects  which 
the  innate  vices  of  mankind  induce  them  to  accept  with 
eagerness,  while  they  assume  the  garb  of  philosophical  ab 
stractions  to  cover  thejr  nastiness  in  deference  to  a  con 
temptible  and  universal  hypocrisy. 

"  Who  fills  the  butchers'  shops  with  large  blue  flies  ?  " 

Assuredly  the  New  England  demon  who  has  been  persecut 
ing  the  South  until  its  intolerable  cruelty  and  insolence 
forced  her,  in  a  spasm  of  agony,  to  rend  her  chains  asunder. 
The  New  Englander  must  have  something  to  persecute,  and 
as  he  has  hunted  down  all  his  Indians,  burnt  all  his 
witches,  and  persecuted  all  his  opponents  to  the  death,  he 
invented  Abolitionism  as  the  sole  resource  left  to  him  for 
the  gratification  of  his  favorite  passion.  Next  to  this  mo 
tive  principle  is  his  desire  to  make  money  dishonestly, 
trickily,  meanly,  and  shabbily.  He  has  acted  on  it  in  all 
his  relations  with  the  South,  and  has  cheated  and  plundered 
her  in  all  his  dealings  by  villainous  tariffs.  If  one  objects 
that  the  South  must  have  been  a  party  to  this,  because  her 
boast  is  that  her  statesmen  have  ruled  the  Government  of 
the  country,  you  are  told  that  the  South  yielded  out  of  pure 
good  nature.  Now,  however,  she  will  have  free  trade,  and 
will  open  the  coasting  trade  to  foreign  nations,  and  shut  out 
from  it  the  hated  Yankees,  who  so  long  monopolized  and 
made  their  fortunes  by  it.  Under  all  the  varied  burdens 
and  miseries  to  which  she  was  subjected,  the  South  held 
fast  to  her  sheet  anchor.  South  Carolina  was  the  mooring 
ground  in  which  it  found  the  surest  hold.  The  doctrine  of 
State  Rights  was  her  salvation,  and  the  fiercer  the  storm 
raged  against  her  —  the  more  stoutly  demagogy,  immigrant 
preponderance,  and  the  blasts  of  universal  suffrage  bore 
down  on  her,  threatening  to  sweep  away  the  vested  in 
terests  of  the  South  in  her  right  to  govern  the  States  —  the 


46  THE    CIVIL    WAR    IN    AMEBICA. 

greater  was  her  confidence  and  the  more  resolutely,  she  held 
on  her  cable.  The  North  attracted  "  hordes  of  ignorant 
Germans  and  Irish,"  and  the  scum  of  Europe,  while  the 
South  repelled  them.  The  industry,  the  capital  of  the 
North  increased  with  enormous  rapidity,  under  the  influ 
ence  of  cheap  labor  and  manufacturing  ingenuity  and  enter 
prise,  in  the  villages  which  swelled  into  towns,  and  the 
towns  which  became  cities,  under  the  unenvious  eye  of  the 
South.  She,  on  the  contrary,  toiled  on  slowly,  clearing 
forests  and  draining  swamps  to  find  new  cotton-grounds 
and  rice-fields,  for  the  employment  of  her  only  industry  and 
for  the  development  of  her  only  capital  —  "  involuntary  la 
bor."  The  tide  of  immigration  waxed  stronger,  and  by 
degrees  she  saw  the  districts  into. which  she  claimed  the 
right  to  introduce  that  capital  closed  against  her,  and  occu 
pied  by  free  labor.  The  doctrine  of  squatter  "  sovereignty," 
and  the  force  of  hostile  tariffs,  which  placed  a  heavy  duty 
on  the  very  articles  which  the  South  most  required,  com 
pleted  the  measure  of  injuries  to  which  she  was  subjected, 
and  the  spirit  of  discontent  found  vent  in  fiery  debate,  in 
personal  insults,  and  in  acrimonious  speaking  and  writing, 
which  increased  in  intensity  in  proportion  as  the  Abolition 
movement,  and  the  contest  between  the  Federal  principle 
and  State  Rights,  became  more  vehement.  I  am  desirous 
of  showing  in  a  few  words,  for  the  information  of  English 
readers,  how  it  is  that  the  Confederacy  which  Europe  knew 
simply  as  a  political  entity  has  succeeded  in  dividing  itself. 
The  Slave  States  held  the  doctrine,  or  say  they  did,  that 
each  State  was  independent  as  France  or  as  England,  but 
that  for  certain  purposes  they  chose  a  common  agent  to  deal 
with  foreign  nations,  and  to  impose  taxes  for  the  purpose  of 
paying  the  expenses  of  the  agency.  We,  it  appears,  talked 
of  American  citizens  when  there  were  no  such  beings  at  all. 
There  were,  indeed,  citizens  of  the  Sovereign  State  of 
South  Carolina,  or  of  Georgia  or  Florida,  who  permitted 
themselves  to  pass  under  that  designation,  but  it  was  merely 
as  a  matter  of  personal  convenience.  It  will  be  difficult  for 
Europeans  to  understand  this  doctrine,  as  nothing  like  it 
has  been  heard  before,  and  no  such  Confederation  of  Sover 
eign  States  has  ever  existed  in  any  country  in  the  world. 
The  Northern  men  deny  that  it  existed  here,  and  claim  for 
the  Federal  Government  powers  not  compatible  with  such 
assumptions.  They  have  lived  for  the  Union,  they  served 
it,  they  labored  for  and  made  money  by  it.  A  man  as  a 


THE    CIVIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA.  47 

New  York  man  was  nothing  —  as  an  American  citizen  he 
was  a  great  deal.  A  South  Carolinian  objected  to  lose  his 
identity  in  any  description  which  included  him  and  a 
"  Yankee  clockmaker  "  in  the  same  category.  The  Union 
was  against  him  ;  he  remembered  that  he  came  from  a  race 
of  English  gentlemen  who  had  been  persecuted  by  the  rep 
resentatives  —  for  he  will  not  call  them  the  ancestors  —  of 
the  Puritans  of  New  England,  and  he  thought  that  they 
were  animated  by  the  same  hostility  to  himself.  He  was 
proud  of  old  names,  and  he  felt  pleasure  in  tracing  his  con 
nection  with  old  families  in  the  old  country.  His  planta 
tions  were  held  by  old  charters,  or  had  been  in  the  hands  of 
his  fathers  for  several  generations  ;  and  he  delighted  to  re 
member  that  when  the  Stuarts  were  banished  from  their 
throne  and  their  country,  the  burgesses  of  South  Carolina 
had  solemnly  elected  the  wandering  Charles  king  of  their 
State,  and  had  offered  him  an  asylum  and  a  kingdom.  The 
philosophical  historian  may  exercise  his  ingenuity  in  con 
jecturing  what  would  have  been  the  result  if  the  fugitive 
had  carried  his  fortunes  to  Charleston. 

South  Carolina  contains  34,000  square  miles  and  a  popu 
lation  of  720,000  inhabitants,  of  whom  385,000  are  black 
slaves.  In  the  old  rebellion  it  was  distracted  between  revo 
lutionary  principles  and  the  loyalist  predilections,  and  at 
least  one  half  of  the  planters  were'  faithful  to  George  III., 
nor  did  they  yield  till  Washington  sent  an  army  to  support 
their  antagonists,  and  drove  them  from  the  colony. 

In  my  next  letter  I  shall  give  a  brief  account  of  a  visit 
to  some  of  the  planters,  as  far  as  it  can  be  made  consistent 
with  the  obligations  which  the  rites  and  rights  of  hospitality 
impose  on  the  guest  as  well  as  upon  the  host.  -  These  gen 
tlemen  are  well-bred,  courteous,  and  hospitable.  A  genu 
ine  aristocracy,  they  have  time  to  cultivate  their  minds,  to 
apply  themselves  to  politics  and  the  guidance  of  public 
affairs.  They  travel  and  read,  love  field  sports,  racing, 
shooting,  hunting  and  fishing,  are  bold  horsemen,  and  good 
shots.  But,  after  all,  their  State  is  a  modern  Sparta  —  an 
aristocracy  resting  on  a  helotry,  and  with  nothing  else  to 
rest  upon.  Although  they  profess  (and  I  believe,  indeed, 
sincerely)  to  hold  opinions  in  opposition  to  the  opening  of 
the  slave  trade,  it  is  nevertheless  true  that  the  clause  in  the 
Constitution  of  the  Confederate  States  which  prohibited  the 
importation  of  negroes  was  especially  and  energetically  re 
sisted  by  them,  because,  as  they  say,  it  seemed  to  be  an  ad- 


48  THE    CIYIL   WAR    IN   AMERICA. 

mission  that  slavery  was  in  itself  an  evil  and  a  wrong. 
Their  whole  system  rests  on  slavery,  and  as  such  they  de 
fend  it.  They  entertain  very  exaggerated  ideas  of  the  mili 
tary  strength  of  their  little  community,  although  one  may 
do  full  justice  to  its  military  spirit.  Out  of  their  whole 
population  they  cannot  reckon  more  than  60,000  adult  men 
by  any  arithmetic,  and  as  there  are  nearly  30,000  plantations 
which  must  be,  according  to  law,  superintended  by  white 
men,  a  considerable  number  of  these  adults  cannot  be  spared 
from  the  State  for  service  in  the  open  field.  The  planters 
boast  that  they  can  raise  their  crops  without  any  inconven 
ience  by  the  labor  of  their  negroes,  and  they  seem  confident 
that  the  negroes  will  work  without  superintendence.  But 
the  experiment  is  rather  dangerous,  and  it  will  only  be  tried 
in  the  last  extremity. 

SAVANNAH,  GA.,  May  1,  1861. 

It  is  said  that  "  fools  build  houses  for  wise  men  to  live 
in."  Be  that  true  or  not,  it  is  certain  that  "  Uncle  Sam  " 
has  built  strong  places  for  his  enemies  to  occupy.  To-day 
I  visited  Fort  Pulaski,  which  defends  the  mouth  of  the  Sa 
vannah  River  and  the  approaches  to  the  city.  It  was  left 
to  take  care  of  itself,  and  the  Georgians  quietly  stepped  into 
it,  and  have  been  busied  in  completing  its  defences,  so  that 
it  is  now  capable  of  stopping  a  fleet  very  effectually.  Pu 
laski  was  a  Pole  who  fell  in  the  defence  of  Savannah  against 
the  British,  and  whose  memory  is  perpetuated  in  the  name 
of  the  fort,  which  is  now  under  the  Confederate  flag,  and 
garrisoned  by  bitter  foes  of  the  United  States.  Among  our 
party  were  Commodore  Tattnall,  whose  name  will  be  famil 
iar  to  English  ears  in  connection  with  the  attack  on  the 
Peiho  Forts,  where  the  gallant  American  showed  the  world 
that  "  blood  was  thicker  than  water,"  Brigadier- General 
Lawton,  in  command  of  the  forces  of  Georgia,  and  a  num 
ber  of  naval  and  military  officers,  of  whom  many  had  be 
longed  to  the  United  States  regular  service.  It  was 
strange  to  look  at  such  a  man  as  the  Commodore,  who  for 
forty-nine  long  years  had  served  under  the  Stars  and  Stripes, 
quietly  preparing  to  meet  his  old  comrades  and  friends,  if 
needs  be,  in  the  battle-field  —  his  allegiance  to  the  country 
and  to  the  flag  renounced,  his  long  service  flung  away,  his 
old  ties  and  connections  severed  —  and  all  this  in  defence  of 
the  sacred  right  of  rebellion  on  the  part  of  "  his  State." 
He  is  not  now,  nor  has  he  been  for  years,  a  slave-owner  ;  all 


THE    CIVIL    WAX    IN    AMERICA.  49 

his  family  and  familiar  associations  connect  him  with  the 
the  North.  There  are  no  naval  stations  on  the  Southern 
coasts  except  one  at  Pensacola,  and  he  knows  almost  no  one 
in  the  South.  He  has  no  fortune  whatever,  his  fleet  con 
sists  of  two  small  river  or  coasting  steamers,  without  guns, 
and  as  he  said,  in  talking  over  the  resources  of  the  South, 
"  My  bones  will  be  bleached  many  a  long  year  before  the 
Confederate  States  can  hope  to  have  a  navy."  "State 
Rights ! "  To  us  the  question  is  simply  inexplicable  or 
absurd.  And  yet  thousands  of  Americans  sacrifice  all  for 
it.  The  river  at  Savannah  is  as  broad  as  the  Thames  at 
Gravesend,  and  resembles  that  stream  very  much  in  the 
color  of  its  waters  and  the  level  natures  of  its  shores. 
Rice-fields  bound  it  on  either  side,  as  far  down  as  the  influ 
ence  of  the  fresh  water  extends,  and  the  eye  wanders  over  a 
.flat  expanse  of  mud  and  water  and  green  oziers  and  rushes, 
till  its  search  is  arrested  on  the  horizon  by  the  unfailing 
line  of  forest.  In  the  fields  here  and  there  are  the  white 
washed,  square,  wooden  huts  in  which  the  slaves  dwell, 
looking  very  like  the  beginnings  of  the  camp  in  the  Crimea. 
At  one  point  a  small  fort,  covering  a  creek  by  which  gun 
boats  could  get  up  behind  Savannah,  displayed  its  "  garri 
son"  on  the  walls,  and  lowered  its  flag  to  salute  the  small 
blue  ensign  at  the  fore,  which  proclaimed  the  presence  of 
the  Commodore  of  the  Naval  Forces  of  Georgia  on  board 
our  steamer.  The  guns  on  the  parapet  were  mostly  field- 
pieces,  mounted  on  frameworks  of  wood  instead  of  regular 
carriages.  There  is  no  mistake  about  the  spirit  of  these 
people.  They  seize  upon  every  spot  of 'vantage  ground  and 
prepare  it  for  defence.  There  were  very  few  ships  in  the 
river ;  the  yacht  Camilla,  better  known  as  the  America,  the 
property  of  Captain  Deasy,  and  several  others  of  those  few 
sailing  under  British  colors,  for  most  of  the  cotton  ships  are 
gone.  After  steaming  down  the  river  about  twelve  miles 
the  sea  opened  out  to  the  sight,  and  on  a  long,  marshy,  nar 
row  island  near  the  bar,  which  was  marked  by  the  yellowish 
surf,  Fort  Pulaski  threw  out  the  Confederate  flag  to  the  air 
of  the  Georgian  1st  of  May.  The  water  was  too  shallow  to 
permit  the  steamer  to  go  up  to  the  jetty,  and*  the  party 
landed  at  the  wharf  in  boats.  A  guard  was  on  duty  at  the 
landing  —  tall,  stout  young  fellows,  in  various  uniforms,  or 
in  rude  mufti,  in  which  the  Garibaldian  red  shirt  and  felt 
slouched  hats  predominated.  They  were  armed  with 
smooth-bore  muskets  (date  1851),  quite  new,  and  their 
5 


50  THE    CIVIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA. 

bayonets,  barrels  and  locks  were  bright  and  clean.  The 
officer  on  duty  was  dressed  in  the  blue  frock-coat  dear  to 
the  British  Linesman  in  days  gone  by,  with  brass  buttons, 
emblazoned  with  the  arms  of  the  State,  a  red  silk  sash,  and 
glazed  kepi,  and  straw-colored  gauntlets.  Several  wooden 
huts,  with  flower-gardens  in  front,  were  occupied  by  the  offi 
cers  of  the  garrison  ;  others  were  used  as  hospitals,  and 
were  full  of  men  suffering  from  measles  of  a  mild  type.  A 
few  minutes'  walk  led  us  to  the  fort,  which  is  an  irregular 
pentagon,  with  the  base  line  or  curtain  face  inlands,  and 
the  other  faces  casemated  and  bearing  on  the  approaches. 
The  curtain,  which  is  simply  crenellated,  is  covered  by  a 
Redan  surrounded  by  a  deep  ditch,  inside  the  parapet  of 
which  are  granite  platforms  ready  for  the  reception  of  guns. 
The  parapet  is  thick,  and  the  scarp  and  counterscarp  are 
faced  with  solid  masonry.  A  drawbridge  affords  access  to 
the  interior  of  the  Redan,  whence  the  gate  of  the  fort  is 
approached  across  a  deep  and  broad  moat,  which  is  crossed 
by  another  drawbridge.  As  the  Commodore  entered  the 
Redan  the  guns  of  the  fort  broke  out  into  a  long  salute,  and 
the  band  at  the  gate  struck  up  almost  as  noisy  a  welcome. 
Inside,  the  parade  presented  a  scene  of  life  and  animation 
very  unlike  the  silence  of  the  city  we  had  left.  Men  were 
busy  clearing  out  the  casemates,  rolling  away  stores  and 
casks  of  ammunition  and  provisions,  others  were  at  work  at 
the  gin  and  shears,  others  building  sand-bag  traverses  to 
guard  the  magazine  doors,  as  though  expecting  an  immedi 
ate  attack.  Many  officers  were  strolling  under  the  shade  of 
an  open  gallery  at  the  side  of  the  curtain  which  contained 
their  quarters  in  the  lofty  bomb-proof  casemates.  Some  of 
them  had  seen  service  in  Mexico  or  border  warfare  ;  some 
had  travelled  over  Italian  and  Crimean  battle-fields  ;  others 
were  West  Point  graduates  of  the  regular  army  ;  others 
young  planters,  clerks,  or  civilians,  who  rushed  with  ardor 
into  the  First  Georgian  Regiment.  The  garrison  of  the 
fort  is  some  six  hundred  and  fifty  men,  and  fully  that  num 
ber  were  in  and  about  the  work,  their  tents  being  pitched 
inside  the  Redan  or  on  the  terreplein  of  the  parapets.  The 
walls  are  '  exceedingly  solid  and  well  built  of  gray  brick, 
strong  as  iron,  and  upward  of  six  feet  in  thickness,  the  case 
mates  and  bomb-proofs  being  lofty,  airy,  and  capacious  as 
any  I  have  ever  seen,  though  there  is  not  quite  depth 
enough  between  the  walls  at  the  salient  and  the  gun-car 
riages.  The  work  is  intended  for  one  hundred  and  twenty- 


THE    CIVIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA.  51 

eight  guns,  of  which  about  one  fourth  are  mounted  on  the 
casemates.  They  are  long  32's,  with  a  few  42's,  and  co- 
lumbiads.  The  armaments  will  be  exceeding  heavy  when 
all  the  guns  are  mounted,  and  they  are  fast  getting  the  ten- 
inch  columbiads  into  position  en  barbette.  Everything 
which  could  be  required,  except  mortars,  was  in  abundance 
—  the  platforms  and  gun  carriages  are  solid  and  well  made, 
the  embrasures  of  the  casemates  are  admirably  constructed, 
and  the  ventilation  of  the  bomb-proof  carefully  provided  for. 
There  are  three  furnaces  for  heating  red-hot  shot.  Nor  is 
discipline  neglected,  and  the  officers  with  whom  I  went 
round  the  works  were  as  sharp  in  tone  and  manner  to  their 
men  as  volunteers  well  could  be,  though  the  latter  often 
are  enlisted  for  only  three  years  by  the  State  of  Georgia. 
An  excellent  lunch  was  spread  in  the  casemated  bomb-proof, 
which  served  as  the  Colonel's  quarter,  and  before  sunset  the 
party  were  steaming  towards  Savannah  through  a  tideway 
full  of  leaping  sturgeon  and  porpoises,  leaving  the  garrison 
intent  on  the  approach  of  a  large  ship,  which  had  her  sails 
aback  off  the  bar  and  hoisted  the  Stars  and  Stripes,  but 
which  turned  out  tcr  be  nothing  more  formidable  than  a 
Liverpool  cotton  ship.  It  will  take  some  hard  blows  before 
Georgia  is  driven  to  let  go  her  grip  of  Fort  Pulaski.  The 
channel  is  very  narrow,  and  passes  close  to  the  guns  of  the 
fort.  The  means  of  completing  the  armament  have  been 
furnished  by  the  stores  of  Norfolk  Navy  Yard,  where  be 
tween  seven  hundred  and  eight  hundred  guns  have  fallen 
into  the  hands  of  the  Confederates;  and,  if  there  are  no 
columbiads  among  them,  the  Merrimac  and  other  ships, 
which  have  been  raised,  as  we  hear,  with  guns  uninjured, 
will  yield  up  their  Dahlgrens  to  turn  their  muzzles  against 
their  old  masters. 

MAY  2. —  May-day  was  so  well  kept  yesterday  that  the 
exhausted  editors  cannot  "  bring  out "  their  papers,  and 
consequently  there  is  no  news ;  but  there  is,  nevertheless, 
much  to  be  said  concerning  "  Our  President's  "  Message, 
and  there  is  a  suddenness  of  admiration  for  pacific  tendencies 
which  can  with  difficulty  be  accounted  for,  unless  the  news 
from  the  North  these  last  few  days  has  something  to  do  with 
it.  Not  a  word  now  about  an  instant  march  on  Washing 
ton  !  No  more  threats  to  seize  on  Faneuil  Hall !  The 
Georgians  are  by  no  means  so  keen  as  the  Carolinians  on 
their  border  —  nay,  they  are  not  so  belligerent  to-day  as 


52  THE    CIVIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA. 

they  were  a  week  ago.  Mr.  Jefferson  Davis' s  Message  is 
praised  for  its  "  moderation,"  and  for  other  qualities  which 
were  by  no  means  in  such  favor  while  the  Sumter  fever  was 
at  its  height.  Men  look  grave  and  talk  about  the  inter 
ference  of  England  and  France,  which  "  cannot  allow  this 
thing  to  go  on."  But  the  change  which  has  come  over 
them  is  unmistakable,  and  the  best  men  begin  to  look 
grave.  As  for  me,. I  must  prepare  to  open  my  lines  of  re 
treat  —  my  communications  are  in  danger. 


LETTER    VII. 

FACTS   AND    OPINIONS    IN    REGARD    TO    NORTH  AND    SOUTH. 

MONTGOMERY,  May  16,  1861. 

ALTHOUGH  I  have  written  two  letters  since  my  arrival  at 
Charleston,  I  have  not  been  able  to  give  an  account  of  many 
things  which  have  come  under  my  notice,  and  which  ap 
peared  to  be  noteworthy  ;  and  now  that  I  am  fairly  on  my 
travels  once  more,  it  seems  only  too  probable  that  I  shall 
be  obliged  to  pass  them  over  altogether.  The  roaring  fire 
of  the  revolution  is  fast  sweeping  over  the  prairies,  and  one 
must  fly  before  it  or  burn.  I  am  obliged  to  see  all  that  can 
be  seen  of  the  South  at  once,  and  then,  armed  with  such 
safeguards  as  I  can  procure,  to  make  an  effort  to  recover 
my  communications.  Bridges  broken,  rails  torn  up,  tele 
graphs  pulled  down  —  I  am  quite  in  the  air,  and  air  charged 
with  powder  and  fire. 

One  of  the  most  extraordinary  books  in  the  world  could 
be  made  out  of  the  cuttings  and  parings  of  the  newspapers 
which  have  been  published  within  the  last  few  days.  The 
judgments,  statements,  asseverations  of  the  press,  every 
where  necessarily  hasty,  ill-sifted,  and  off-hand,  do  not 
aspire  to  even  an  ephemeral  existence  here.  They  are  of 
use  if  they  serve  the  purpose  of  the  moment,  and  of  the 
little  boys  who  commence  their  childhood  in  deceit,  and 
continue  to  adolescence  in  iniquity,  by  giving  vocal  utter 
ance  to  the  "  sensation "  headings  in  the  journals  they 
retail  so  sharply  and  curtly.  Talk  of  the  superstition  of 
the  Middle  Ages,  or  of  the  credulity  of  the  more  advanced 
periods  of  rural  life  ;  laugh  at  the  Holy  Coat  of  Treves,  or 


THE    CIVIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA.  53 

groan  over  the  Lady  of  Salette ;  deplore  the  faith  in  wink 
ing  pictures,  or  in  a  communique  of  the  Monileur ;  moralize 
on  the  superstition  which  discovers  more  in  the  liquefaction 
of  the  ichor  of  St.  Gennaro  than  a  chemical  trick ;  but  if 
you  desire  to  understand  how  far  faith  can  see  and  trust 
among  the  people  who  consider  themselves  the  most  civil 
ized  and  intelligent  in  the  world,  you  will  study  the  Ameri 
can  journals,  and  read  the  telegrams  which  appear  in  them. 
One  day  the  7th  New  York  regiment  is  destroyed  for  the 
edification  of  the  South,  and  is  cut  up  into  such  small 
pieces  that  none  of  it  is  ever  seen  afterward.  The  next  day  it 
marches  into  Washington,  or  Annapolis,  all  the  better  for 
the  process.  Another,  in  order  to  encourage  the  North,  it  is 
said  that  hecatombs  of  dead  were  carried  out  of  Fort  Moul- 
trie,  packed  up,  for  easy  travelling,  in  boxes.  Again,  to 
irritate  both,  it  is  credibly  stated  that  Lord  Lyons  is  going 
to  interfere,  or  that  an  Anglo-French  fleet  is  coming  to  watch 
the  ports,  and  so  on  through  a  wild  play  of  fancy,  inexact 
in  line  as  though  the  batteries  were  charged  with  the  aurora 
borealis  or  summer  lightning,  instead  of  the  respectable, 
steady,  manageable  offspring  of  acid  and  metal,  to  whose 
staid  deportment  we  are  accustomed  at  a  moderate  price  for 
entrance.  As  is  usual  in  such  periods,  the  contending  parties 
accuse  each  other  of  inveterate  falsehood,  perfidy,  oppres 
sion,  and  local  tyranny  and  persecution.  "  Madness  rules 
the  hour." 

It  was  only  a  day  or  two  ago  I  took  up  a  local  journal  of 
considerable  influence,  in  which  were  two  paragraphs  which 
struck  me  as  being  inexpressibly  absurd.  In  the  first *it 
was  stated  that  a  gentleman  who  had  expressed  strong 
Southern  sentiments  in  a  New  York  hotel,  had  been  mobbed 
and  thrown  into  the  street,  and  the  writer  indulged  in  some 
fitting  reflections  on  the  horrible  persecution  which  pre 
vailed  in  New  York,  and  on  the  atrocity  of  such  tyrannical 
mob-lawlessness  in  a  civilized  community.  In  another 
column  there  was  a  pleasant  little  narrative  how  citizens  of 
Opelika,  in  Georgia,  had  waited  on  a  certain  person,  who 
was  "suspected"  of  entertaining  Northern  views,  and  had 
deported  him  on  a  rustic  conveyance,  known  as  a  rail,  which 
was  considered  by  the  journalist  a  very  creditable  exercise 
of  public  spirit.  Nay,  more  ;  in  a  naive  paragraph  relative 
to  an  attempt  to  burn  the  huge  hotel  of  Willard,  at  Wash 
ington,  in  which  some  hundreds  of  people  were  residing, 
the  paper,  to  account  satisfactorily  for  the  attempt,  and  to 
5* 


54  THE    CIVIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA. 

assign  some  intelligible  and  laudable  motive  for  it,  adds, 
that  he  supposes  it  was  intended  to  burn  out  the  "  Border 
ruffians  "  who  were  lodged  there  —  a  reproduction  of  the 
excuse  of  our  Anglo -Irish  lord,  who  apologized  for  setting 
fire  to  a  cathedral,  on  the  ground  that  he  imagined  the 
Bishop  was  inside.  The  exultation  of  the  South  when  the 
flag  of  the  United  States  was  lowered  at  Sumter,  has  been 
answered  by  a  shout  of  indignation  and  a  battle-cry  from 
the  North,  and  the  excitement  at  Charleston  has  produced  a 
reflex  action  there,  the  energy  of  which  cannot  be  described. 
The  apathy  which  struck  me  at  New  York,  when  I  landed, 
has  been  succeeded  by  violent  popular  enthusiasm,  before 
which  all  Laodicean  policy  has  melted  into  fervent  activity. 
The  truth  must  be,  that  the  New  York  population  did  not 
believe  in  the  strength  and  unanimity  of  the  South,  and 
that  they  thought  the  Union  safe,  or  did  not  care  about  it. 
I  can  put  down  the  names  of  gentlemen  who  expressed  the 
strongest  opinions  that  the  Government  of  the  United  States 
had  no  power  to  coerce  the  South,  and  who  have  since  put 
down  their  names  and  their  money  to  support  the  Govern 
ment  in  the  attempt  to  recover  the  forts  which  have  been 
taken.  As  to  the  change  of  opinion  in  other  quarters, 
which  has  been  effected  so  rapidly  and  miraculously,  that  it 
has  the  ludicrous  air  of  a  vulgar  juggler's  trick  at  a  fair, 
the  public  regard  it  so  little,  that  it  would  be  unbecoming 
to  waste  a  word  about  it. 

I  expressed  a  belief  in  my  first  letter,  written  a  few  days 
after  my  arrival,  that  the  South  would  never  go  back  into 
th£  Union.  The  North  thinks  that  it  can  coerce  the  South, 
and  I  am  not  prepared  to  say  they  are  right  or  wrong ;  but 
I  am  convinced  that  the  South  can  only  be  forced  back  by 
such  a  conquest  as  that  which  laid  Poland  prostrate  at  the 
feet  of  Russia.  It  may  be  that  such  a  conquest  can  be 
made  by  the  North,  but  success  must  destroy  the  Union  as 
it  has  been  constituted  in  times  past.  A  strong  Government 
must  be  the  logical  consequence  of  victory,  and  the  triumph 
of  the  South  will  be  attended  by  a  similar  result,  for  jvhich, 
indeed,  many  Southerners  are  very  well  disposed.  To  the 
people  of  the  Confederate  States  there  would  be  no  terror 
in  such  an  issue,  for  it  appears  to  me  they  are  pining  for  a 
strong  Government  exceedingly.  The  North  must  accept 
\  it,  whether  they  like  it  or  not.  Neither  party,  if  such  a 
term  can  be  applied  to  the  rest  of  the  United  States  and  to 
those  States  which  disdain  the  authority  of  the  Federal 


THE    CIVIL   WAR    IN    AMERICA.  55 

Government,  was  prepared  for  the  aggressive  or  resisting 
power  of  the  other.  Already  the  Confederate  States  per 
ceive  that  they  cannot  carry  all  before  them  with  a  rush, 
while  the  North  have  learnt  that  they  must  put  forth  all 
their  strength  to  make  good  a  tithe  of  their  lately  uttered 
threats.  But  the  Montgomery  Government  are  now,  they  say, 
anxious  to  gain  time,  and  to  prepare  a  regular  army.  The 
North,  distracted  by  apprehensions  of  vast  disturbances  in 
its  complicated  relations,  is  clamoring  for  instant  action  and 
speedy  consummation.  The  counsels  of  the  moderate  men, 
as  they  were  called,  have  been  utterly  overruled. 

I  am  now,  however,  dealing  with  South  Carolina,  which 
has  been  the  fons  et  origo  of  the  Secession  doctrines,  and 
their  development   into    the   full   life   of    the    Confederate 
States.     The   whole   foundation    on   which  South   Carolina 
rests  is  cotton  and  a  certain  amount  of  rice,   or   rather  she 
bases  her  whole  fabric  on  the  necessity  which  exists  in  Eu 
rope  for  those  products  of  her  soil,  believing  and  asserting, 
as  she  does,  that  England  and  France   cannot  and  will  not 
do  without  them.     Cotton,   without  a  market,   is   so  much 
flocculent  matter  encumbering   the  ground.     Rice,  without 
demand  for  it,  is  unsalable  grain  in  store  and  on  the  field. 
Cotton  at  ten  cents  a  pound  is  boundless  prosperity,  empire, 
and  superiority,  and  rice  or  grain  need  no  longer  be  regard 
ed.     In  the  matter  of  slave  labor,   South  Carolina  argues 
pretty  much  in  this  way  :   England  and  France  require  our 
products.     In  order  to  meet  their  wants,  we  must  cultivate 
our  soil.     There  is  only  one  way  of  doing  so.     The  white 
man  cannot  live  on  our  land  at  certain  seasons  of  the  year ; 
he  cannot  work  in  the  manner  required  by  the  crops.     We 
must,  therefore,  employ  a  race  suited  to  the  labor,  and  that 
is  a  race  which  will  only  work  when  it  is  obliged  to  do  so. 
That  race  was   imported  from  Africa,  under  the  sanction  of 
the  law,  by  our  ancestors,  when  we  were   a  British   colony, 
and  it  has  been  fostered  by  us,  so  that  its  increase  here  has 
been  as  that  of  the  most  nourishing  people  in  the  world.    In 
other  places  where  its   labor  was  not  productive,  or  impera 
tively  essential,  that  race   has  been   made  free,   sometimes 
with  disastrous  consequences  to  itself  and  to  industry.      But 
we  will  not  make  it  free.     We  cannot  do  so.     We  hold  that 
Slavery  is  essential  to  our   existence  as  producers  of  what 
Europe  requires  ;  nay,  more,  we  maintain  it  is  in  the  ab 
stract  right  in  principle  ;  and  some   of  us   go  so    far   as  to 
maintain  that  the  only  proper  form  of  society,  according  to 


56  THE    CIVIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA. 

the  law  of  God  and  the  exigencies  of  man,  is  that  which 
has  Slavery  as  its  basis.  As  to  the  slave,  he  is  happier  far 
in  his  state  of  servitude,  more  civilized  and  religious  than 
he  is  or  could  be  if  free  or  in  his  native  Africa. 

I  have  already  endeavored  to  describe  the  portion  of  the 
State  through  which  I  travelled,  and  the  aspect  of  Charles 
ton,  and  I  will  now  proceed,  at  the  risk  of  making  this 
letter  longer  than  it  should  be,  to  make  a  few  observations 
on  matters  which  struck  me  during  my  visit  to  one  or  two 
of  the  planters*  of  the  many  who  were  kind  enough  to  give 
me  invitations  to  their  residences  in  the  State. 

Early  one  fine  morning  I  started  in  a  coasting  steamer  to 
visit  a  plantation  in  the  Pedee  and  Maccamaw  district,  in 
the  Island  coast  of  the  State,  north  of  Charleston.  The 
only  source  of  uneasiness  in  the  mind  of  the  party  arose 
from  the  report  that  the  United  States  squadron  was  coming 
to  blockade  the  port,  which  would  have  cut  off  our  line  of 
retreat,  and  compelled  us  to  make  a  long  detour  and  a 
somewhat  difficult  journey  by  land,  seeing  that  the  roads 
are  mere  sand  tracts,  as  the  immense  number  of  rivers  and 
creeks  offers  excuse  for  not  improving  the  means  of  land 
communication.  Passing  Sumter,  on  which  men  are  busily 
engaged,  under  the  Confederate  flag,  in  making  good  dam 
ages,  and  mounting  guns,  we  put  out  a  few  miles  to  sea,  and 
with  the  low  sandy  shore,  dotted  with  soldiers,  and  guard 
houses,  and  clumps  of  trees,  on  our  left,  in  a  few  hours 
pass  the  Santee  River,  and  enter  an  estuary  into  which  the 
Pedee  and  Maccamaw  Rivers  run  a  few  miles  further  to  the 
northwest.  The  arid,  barren,  pine-covered  sand-hills,  which 
form  the  shores  of  this  estuary,  are  guarded  by  rude  bat 
teries,  mounted  with  heavy  guns,  and  manned  by  the  State 
troops,  some  of  whom  we  can  see  strolling  along  the  beach, 
or,  with  arms  glancing  in  the  sunlight,  pacing  up  and  down 
on  their  posts.  On  the  left  hand  side  there  are  said  to  be 
plantations,  the  sites  of  which  are  marked  by  belts  of  trees, 
and  after  we  had  proceeded  a  few  miles  from  the  sea,  the 
steamer  ran  alongside  a  jetty  and  pier,  which  was  crowded 
by  men  in  uniform,  waiting  for  the  news,  and  for  supplies 
of  creature  comforts. 

Ladies  were  cantering  along  the  fine  hard  beach,  and  some 
gigs  and  tax-carts,  fully  laden,  rolled  along  very  much  as 
one  sees  them  at  Scarborough.  The  soldiers  on  the  pier 
were  all  gentlemen  of  the  county.  Some,  dressed  in  gray 
tunics  and  yellow  facings,  in  high  felt  hats  and  plumes,  and 


THE    CIVIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA.  57 

jack-boots,  would  have  done  no  discredit  in  face,  figure, 
and  bearing,  to  the  gayest  cavaliers  who  ever  thundered  at 
the  heels  of  Prince  Rupert.  Their  horses,  full  of  Carolinian 
fire  and  metal,  stood  picketed  under  the  trees  along  the 
margin  of  the  beach.  Among  these  men,  who  had  been 
doing  the  duty  of  common  troopers  in  patrolling  the  sea- 
coast,  were  gentlemen  possessed  of  large  estates  and  prince 
ly  fortunes ;  and  one  who  stood  among  them  was  pointed 
out  to  me  as  captain  of  a  company  for  whose  uses  his 
liberality  provided  unbounded  daily  libations  of  champagne, 
and  the  best  luxuries  which  French  ingenuity  can  safely 
imprison  in  those  well-known  caskets,  with  which  Crimean 
warriors  were  not  unacquainted  at  the  close  of  the  campaign. 
They  were  eager  for  news,  which  was  shouted  out  to  them 
by  their  friends  in  the  steamer,  and  one  was  struck  by  the 
intimate  personal  cordiality  and  familiar  acquaintance  which 
existed  among  them.  Three  heavy  guns*  mounted  in  an 
earthwork,  defended  by  palisades,  covered  the  beach  and 
landing-place,  and  the  garrison  was  to  have  been  reenforced 
by  a  regiment  from  Charleston,  which,  however,  had  not 
got  in  readiness  to  go  up  on  our  steamer,  owing  to  some 
little  difficulties  between  the  Volunteers,  their  officers,  and 
the  Quartermaster-general's  department. 

I  mention  these  particulars  to  "give  an  idea  of  the  state  of 
defence  in  which  South  Carolina  holds  itself,  for,  unless 
Georgetown,  which  lies  at  the  head  of  this  inlet,  could  be 
considered  an  object  of  attack,  one  seeks  in  vain  for  any 
reason  to  induce  an  enemy  to  make  his  appearance  in  this 
direction.  A  march  on  Charleston  by  land  would  be  an 
operation  of  extreme  difficulty,  through  a  series  of  sand 
hills,  alternating  with  marshes,  water-course,  rivers,  and 
flooded  rice-fields.  As  to  Georgetown,  which  we  have  now 
reached,  nothing  can  be  said  by  way  of  description  more 
descriptive  than  the  remark  of  its  inhabitants,  that  it  was  a 
finished  town  a  hundred  years  ago.  It  is  a  dosy,  sleepy, 
sandy,  lifeless,  straggling  village,  with  wooden  houses  drawn 
up  in  right  lines  on  the  margins  of  great,  straight,  grass- 
grown  pathways,  lined  with  trees,  and  known  to  the  natives 
as  streets. 

As  the  Nina  approaches  the  tumble-down  wharf,  two  or 
three  citizens  advance  from  the  shade  of  shaky  sheds  to 
welcome  us,  and  a  few  country  vehicles  and  light  phaetons 
are  drawn  forth  from  the  same  shelter  to  receive  the  passen 
gers,  while  the  negro  boys  and  girls,  who  have  been  playing 


58  THE    CIVIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA. 

upon  the  bales  of  cotton  and  barrels  of  rice,  which  repre 
sent  the  trade  of  the  place  on  the  wharf,  take  up  commanding 
positions  for  the  better  observation  of  our  proceedings. 
One  or  two  small  yachts  and  coasting  schooners  are  moored 
by  the  banks  of  the  broad,  full  stream,  the  waters  of  which 
we  had  previously  crossed  in  our  journey  from  the  dismal 
swamp. 

There  is  an  air  of  quaint  simplicity  and  old-fashioned 
quiet  about  Georgetown,  refreshingly  antagonistic  to  the 
bustle  and  tumult  of  most  American  cities,  and  one  can, 
without  much  stretch  of  imagination,  fancy  the  old  loyal 
burghers  in  cocked  hats,  small-swords,  and  long,  square-cut 
sober  suits,  stalking  solemnly  down  its  streets,  rejoicing  in 
the  progress  of  the  city  which  recalled  the  name  of  the 
King  and  the  old  country,  or  hastening  down  to  the  river's 
side  to  hear  the  tidings  brought  from  home  by  the  Bristol 
bark  that  has  just  anchored  in  the  stream.  Instead  thereof, 
however,  there  are  the  tall,  square  forms  of  eager  citizens 
bowed  over  their  newspapers  in  the  shade  before  the  bar 
room,  or  the  shuffling  negro  delighting  in  the  sunshine,  and 
kicking  up  the  dust  in  the  centre  of  the  road  as  he  goes  on 
his  errand. 

While  waiting  for  our  vehicle,  we  enjoyed  the  hospitality 
of  one  of  our  friends,  who  took  us  into  an  old-fashioned 
angular  wooden  mansion,  more  than  a  century  old,  still 
sound  in  every  timber,  and  testifying,  in  its  quaint  wain- 
scotings  and  the  rigid  framework  of  door  and  window,  to 
the  durability  of  its  cypress  timbers,  and  the  preservative 
character  of  the  atmosphere.  In  early  days  it  was  the  crack 
house  of  the  old  settlement,  and  the  residence  of  the  founder 
of  the  female  branch  of  the  family  of  our  host,  who  now 
only  makes  it  his  halting-place  when  passing  to  and  fro 
between  Charleston  and  his  plantation,  leaving  it  the  year 
round  in  charge  of  an  old  servant  and  her  grandchild. 
Rose  trees  and  flowering  shrubs  clustered  before  the  porch, 
and  filled  the  garden  in  front,  and  the  establishment  gave 
one  a  good  idea  of  a  London  merchant's  retreat  about  Chel 
sea  a  hundred  and  fifty  years  ago. 

At  length  we  were  ready  for  our  journey,  and,  mounted 
in  two  light  covered  vehicles,  proceeded  along  the  sandy 
track  which,  after  a  while,  led  us  to  a  cut,  deep  in  the  bosom 
of  the  woods,  where  silence  was  only  broken  by  the  cry  of 
a  woodpecker,  the  boom  of  a  crane,  or  the  sharp  challenge 
of  the  jay.  For  miles  we  passed  through  the  shades  of  this 


THE    CIVIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA.  59 

forest,  meeting  only  two  or  three  vehicles  containing  female 
planterdom  on  little  excursions  of  pleasure  or  business,  who 
smiled  their  welcome  as  we  passed.  Not  more  than  twice 
in  a  drive  of  two  hours  did  we  come  upon  any  settlement  or 
get  a  view  of  any  white  man's  plantation,  and  then  it  was 
only  when  we  had  emerged  from  the  wood  and  got  out  upon 
the  broad,  brown  plains,  where  bunds,  and  water-dykes,  and 
machinery  for  regulating  the  flooding  of  the  lake  indicated  the 
scenes  of  labor.  These  settlements  consisted  of  rows  of  some 
ten  or  twelve  quadrangular  wooden  sheds,  supported  upon 
bricks,  so  as  to  allow  the  air,  the  children,  and  the  chickens 
to  play  beneath  ;  sometimes  with  brickwork  chimneys  at  the 
side,  occasionally  with  ruder  contrivances  of  mud  and  wood 
work  to  serve  the  same  purpose. 

Arrived  at  a  deep  chocolate-colored  stream,  called  Black 
River,  full  of  fish  and  alligators,  we  find  a  flat  large  enough 
to  accommodate  vehicles  and  passengers,  and  propelled  by 
two  negroes  pulling  upon  a  stretched  rope,  in  the  manner 
usual  in  the  ferryboats  of  Switzerland,  ready  for  our  re 
ception.  Another  drive  through  a  more  open  country,  and 
we  reach  a  fine  grove  of  pine  and  live  oak,  which  melts 
away  into  a  "shrubbery,  guarded  by  a  rustic  gateway,  passing 
through  which  we  are  brought  by  a  sudden  turn  into  the 
planter's  house,  buried  in  trees,  which  dispute  with  the 
green  sward,  and  with  wild  flower  beds,  every  yard  of  the 
space  which  lies  between  the  hall-door  and  the  waters  of 
the  Pedee  ;  and  in  a  few  minutes,  as  we  gaze  over  the  ex 
panse  of  fields,  just  tinged  with  green  by  the  first  life  of  the 
early  rice  crops,  marked  by  the  deep  water-cuts,  and  bound 
ed  by  a  fringe  of  unceasing  forest,  the  chimneys  of  the 
steamer  we  had  left  at  Georgetown  gliding,  as  it  were, 
through  the  fields,  indicate  the  existence  of  another  naviga 
ble  river  still  beyond. 

Leaving  with  regret  the  veranda  which  commanded  so  en 
chanting  a  foreground  of  flowers,  rare  shrubbery,  and 
bearded  live  oaks,  with  each  graceful  sylvan  outline  distinct 
ly  penciled  upon  the  waters  of  the  river,  we  enter  the  house, 
and  are  reminded  by  its  low-browed,  old-fashioned  rooms,  of 
the  country  houses  yet  to  be  found  in  parts  of  Ireland  or  the 
Scottish  border,  with  additions  made  by  the  luxury  and  love 
of  foreign  travel  of  more  than  one  generation  of  educated 
Southern  planters.  Paintings  from  Italy  illustrate  the  walls 
in  juxtaposition  with  interesting  portraits  of  early  Colonial 
Governors  and  their  lovely  womankind,  limned  with  no  un- 


60  THE    CIVIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA. 

certain  hand,  and  full  of  the  vigor  of  touch  and  naturalness 
of  drapery,  of  which  Copley  has  left  us  too  few  exemplars, 
and  one  portrait  of  Benjamin  West  claims  for  itself  such 
honor  as  his  own  pencil  can  give.  An  excellent  library, 
filled  with  collections  of  French  and  English  classics,  and 
with  those  ponderous  editions  of  Voltaire,  Rousseau,  the 
Memoires  pour  Servir,  books  of  travel  and  history,  such  as 
delighted  our  forefathers  in  the  last  century,  and  many 
works  of  American  and  general  history,  afford  ample  occupa 
tion  for  a  rainy  day.  But  alas !  these,  and  all  good  things 
which  the  house  affords,  can  be  enjoyed  but  for  a  brief  sea 
son.  Just  as  nature  has  expanded  every  charm,  developed 
every  grace,  and  clothed  the  scene  with  all  the  beauty  of 
opened  flower,  of  ripening  grain,  and  of  mature  vegetation,  on 
the  wings  of  the  wind  the  poisoned  breath  comes  borne  to  the 
home  of  the  white  man,  and  he  must  fly  before  it  or  perish. 
The  books  lie  unopened  on  their  shelves,  the  flower  blooms 
and  dies  unheeded,  and,  pity  'tis  'tis  true,  the  old  Madeira, 
garnered  'neath  the  roof,  settles  down  for  a  fresh  lease  of  life, 
and  sets  about  its  solitary  task  of  acquiring  a  finer  flavor  for  the 
infrequent  lips  of  its  banished  master  and  his  welcome  visi 
tors.  This  is  the  story,  at  least,  that  we  hear  on  all  sides, 
and  such  is  the  tale  repeated  to  us  beneath  the  porch,  when 
the  full  moon  enhances,  while  softening,  the  loveliness  of  the 
scene,  and  the  rich  melody  of  hundreds  of  mocking-birds 
fills  the  grove. 

Within  these  hospitable  doors  Horace  might  banquet 
better  than  he  did  with  Nasidienus,  and  drink  such  wine  as 
can  be  only  found  among  the  descendants  of  an  ancestry 
who,  improvident  enough  in  all  else,  learned  the  wisdom  of 
bottling  up  choice  old  Bual  and  Sercial  ere  the  demon  of 
odium  had  dried  up  their  generous  sources  for  ever.  To 
these  must  be  added  excellent  bread,  ingenious  varieties-of 
the  gallette,  compounded  now  of  rice  and  now  of  Indian 
meal,  delicious  butter  and  fruits,  all  good  of  their  kind. 
What  more  is  needed  for  one  who  agrees  with  Mr.  Disraeli 
in  thinking  bread  and  wine  man's  two  first  luxuries  and  his 
best  ?  And  is  there  anything  bitter  rising  up  from  the  bot 
tom  of  the  social  bowl  ?  My  black  friends  who  attend  on 
me  are  grave  as  Mussulman  Khitmutgars.  They  are  attired 
in  liveries,  and  wear  white  cravats  and  Berlin  gloves.  At 
night,  when  we  retire,  off  they  go  to  their  outer  darkness  in 
the  small  settlement  of  negrohood,  which  is  separated  from 
our  house  by  a  wooden  palisade.  Their  fidelity  is  undoubt- 


THE    CIVIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA.  61 

ed.  The  house  breathes  an  air  of  security.  The  doors  and 
windows  are  unlocked.  There  is  but  one  gun,  a  fowling- 
piece,  on  the  premises.  No  planter  hereabouts  has  any 
dread  of  his  slaves. 

But  I  have  seen  within  the  short  time  that  I  have  been 
here  in  this  part  of  the  world  several  dreadful  accounts  of 
the  murder  and  violence  in  which  masters  suffered  at  the 
hands  of  their  slaves.  There  is  something  suspicious  in  the 
constant,  never-ending  statement,  that  "  We  are  not  afraid  of 
our  slaves."  The  curfew  and  the  night  patrol  in  the  streets, 
the  prisons  and  watch-houses,  and  the  police  regulations 
prove  that  strict  supervision,  at  all  events,  is  needed  and 
necessary.  My  host  is  a  kind  man  and  a  good  master.  If 
slaves  are  happy  anywhere,  they  should  be  so  with  him. 

These  people  are  fed  by  their  master.  They  have  up 
ward  of  half  a  pound  per  diem  of  fat  pork,  and  corn  in 
abundance.  They  rear  poultry,  and  sell  their  chickens  and 
eggs  to  the  house.  They  are  clothed  by  their  master.  He 
keeps  them  in  sickness  as  in  health.  Now  and  then  there 
are  gifts  of  tobacco  and  molasses  for  the  deserving.  There 
was  little  labor  going  on  in  the  fields,  for  the  rice  has  been 
just  exerting  itself  to  get  its  head  above  water.  These 
fields  yield  plentifully,  for  the  waters  of  the  river  are  fat, 
and  they  are  let  in,  whenever  the  planters  require  it,  by 
means  of  floodgates  and  small  canals,  through  which  the 
flats  can  carry  their  loads  of  grain  to  the  river  for  loading 
the  steamers. 


LETTER     VIII. 


FACTS    AND    OPINIONS    AT    THE    CONFEDERATE    CAPITAL. 

MONTGOMERY,  CAPITAL  OF  THE  CONFEDERATE  STATES  ) 
OF  AMERICA,  May  8,  1861.      f 

IN  my  last  letter  I  gave  an  account  of  such  matters  as 
passed  under  my  notice  on  my  way  to  this  city,  which  I 
reached,  as  you  are  aware,  on  the  night  of  Saturday,  May  4. 
I  am  on  difficult  ground,  the  land  is  on  fire,  the  earth  is 
shaking  with  the  tramp  of  armed  men,  and  the  very  air  is 
hot  with  passion.  My  communications  are  cut  off,  or  are  at 
6 


62     .  THE    CIVIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA. 

best  accidental,  and  in  order  to  re-open  them  I  must  get 
further  away  from  them,  paradoxical  as  the  statement  may 
appear  to  be.  It  is  impossible  to  know  what  is  going  on  in 
the  North,  and  it  is  almost  the  same  to  learn  what  is  doing 
in  the  South  out  of  eyeshot  ;  it  is  useless  to  inquire  what 
news  is  sent  to  you  to  England.  Events  hurry  on  with 
tremendous  rapidity,  and  even  the  lightning  lags  behind 
them.  The  people  of  the  South  at  last  are  aware  that  the 
*'  Yankees  "  are  preparing  to  support  the  Government  of  the 
United  States,  and  that  the  Secession  can  only  be  main 
tained  by  victory  in  the  field.  There  has  been  a  change  in 
their  war  policy.  They  now  aver  that  "  they  only  want  to 
be  let  alone,"  and  they  declare  that  they  do  not  intend  to 
take  Washington,  and  that  it  was  merely  as  a  feint  they 
spoke  about  it.  The  fact  is,  there  are  even  in  the  compact 
and  united  South  men  of  moderate  and  men  of  extreme 
views,  and  the  general  tone  of  the  whole  is  regulated  by  the 
preponderance  of  one  or  other  at  the  moment.  I  have  no 
doubt  on  my  mind  that  the  Government  here  intended  to 
attack  and  occupy  Washington  —  not  the  least  that  they  had 
it  much  at  heart  to  reduce  Fort  Pickens  as  soon  as  possible. 
Now  some  of  their  friends  say  that  it  will  be  a  mere  matter 
of  convenience  whether  they  attack  Washington  or  not,  and 
that,  as  for  Fort  Pickens,  they  will  certainly  let  it  alone,  at 
all  events  for  the  present,  inasmuch  as  the  menacing  attitude 
of  General  Bragg  obliges  the  enemy  to  keep  a  squadron  of 
their  best  ships  there,  and  to  retain  a  force  of  regulars  they 
can  ill  spare,  in  a  position  where  they  must  lose  enormously 
from  diseases  incidental  to  the  climate.  They  have  dis 
covered,  too,  that  the  position  is  of  little  value  so  long  as 
the  United  States  hold  Tortugas  and  Key  West.  But  the 
Confederates  are  preparing  for  the  conflict,  and  when  they 
have  organized  their  forces,  they  will  make,  I  am  satisfied,  a 
very  resolute  advance  all  along  the  line.  They  are  at  present 
strong  enough,  they  suppose,  in  their  domestic  resources, 
and  in  the  difficulties  presented  to  a  hostile  force  by  the 
nature  of  the  country,  to  bid  defiance  to  invasion,  or,  at  all 
events,  to  inflict  a  very  severe  chastisement  on  the  invaders, 
and  their  excited  manner  of  speech  so  acts  upon  the  minds 
that  they  begin  to  think  they  can  defy,  not  merely  the 
United  States,  but  the  world.  Thus  it  is  that  they  declare 
they  never  can  be  conquered,  that  they  will  die  to  a  man, 
woman,  and  child  first,  and  that  if  fifty  thousand,  or  any 
number  of  thousands  of  Black  Republicans  get  one  hundred 


THE    CIVIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA.  63 

miles  into  Virginia,  not  one  man  of  them  shall  ever  get  out 
alive.  Behind  all  this  talk,  however,  there  is  immense 
energy,  great  resolution,  and  fixed  principles  of  action. 
Their  strategy  consists  in  keeping  quiet  till  they  have  their 
troops  well  in  hand,  in  such  numbers  and  discipline  as  shall 
give  them  fair  grounds  for  expecting  success  in  any  cam 
paign  with  the  United  States  troops.  They  are  preparing 
with  vigor  to  render  the  descent  of  the  Mississippi  impossi 
ble,  by  erecting  batteries  on  the  commanding  levees  or 
embankments  which  hem  in  its  waters  for  upward  of  eight 
hundred  miles  of  bank,  and  they  are  occupying,  as  far  as 
they  can,  all  the  strategical  points  of  attack  or  defence 
within  their  borders.  When  everything  is  ready,  it  is  not 
improbable  that  Mr.  Jefferson  Davis  will  take  command  of 
the  army,  for  he  is  reported  to  have  a  high  ambition  to 
acquire  reputation  as  a  general,  and  in  virtue  of  his  office  he 
is  Generalissimo  of  the  Armies  of  the  Confederate  States. 
It  will  be  remarked  that  this  plan  rests  on  the  assumption 
that  the  United  Statcs'cannot  or  will  not  wage  an  offensive 
war,  or  obtain  any  success  in  their  attempts  to  recover  the 
forts  and  other  property  of  the  Federal  Government.  They 
firmly  believe  the  war  will  not  last  a  year,  and  that  1862 
will  behold  a  victorious,  compact,  slave-holding  Confederate 
power  of  fifteen  States  under  a  strong  government,  prepared 
to  hold  its  own  against  the  world,  or  that  portion  of  it 
which  may  attack  it.  I  now  but  repeat  the  sentiments  and 
expectations  of  those  around  me.  They  believe  in  the  irre 
sistible  power  of  cotton,  in  the  natural  alliance  between  man 
ufacturing  England  and  France  and  the  cotton  producing 
Slave  States,  in  the  force  of  their  simple  tariff,  and  in  the 
interest  which  arise  out  of  a  system  of  free-trade,  which, 
however,  by  a  rigorous  legislation  they  will  interdict  to  their 
neighbors  in  the  Free  States,  and  only  open  for  the  benefit 
of  their  foreign  customers.  Commercially,  and  politically, 
and  militarily,  they  have  made  up  their  minds,  and  never 
was  there  such  confidence  exhibited  by  any  people  in  the 
future  as  they  have,  or  pretended  to  have,  in  their  destiny. 
Listen  to  their  programme. 

It  is  intended  to  buy  up  all  the  cotton  crop  which  can  be 
brought  into  the  market  at  an  average  price,  and  to  give 
bonds  of  the  Confederate  States  for  the  amount,  these  bonds 
being,  as  we  know,  secured  by  the  export  duty  on  cotton. 
The  Government,  with  this  cotton  crop  in  its  own  hands, 
will  use  it  as  a  formidable  machine  of  war,  for  cotton  can  do 


64  THE    CIVIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA. 

anything,  from  the  establishment  of  an  empire  to  the  secur 
ing  of  a  shirt  button.  It  is  at  once  king  and  subject,  master 
and  servant,  captain  and  soldier,  artilleryman  and  gun.  Not 
one  bale  of  cotton  will  be  permitted  to  enter  the  Northern 
States.  It  will  be  made  an  offence  punishable  with  tre 
mendous  penalties,  among  which  confiscation  of  property, 
enormous  fines,  and  even  the  penalty  of  death,  are  enume 
rated,  to  send  cotton  into  the  Free  States.  Thus  Lowell 
and  its  kindred  factories  will  be  reduced  to  ruin,  it  is  said, 
and  the  North  to  the  direst  distress.  If  Manchester  can  get 
cotton  and  Lowell  cannot,  there  are  good  times  coming  for 
the  mill-owners. 

The  planters  have  agreed  among  themselves  to  hold  over 
one-half  of  their  cotton  crop  for  their  own  purposes  and  for 
the  culture  of  their  fields,  and  to  sell  the  other  to  the  Gov 
ernment.  For  each  bale  of  cotton,  as  I  hear,  a  bond  will 
be  issued  on  the  fair  average  price  of  cotton  in  the  market, 
and  this  bond  must  be  taken  at  par  as  a  circulating  medium 
within  the  limits  of  the  Slave  States.  This  forced  circula 
tion  will  be  secured  by  the  act  of  the  Legislature.  The 
bonds  will  bear  interest  at  10  per  cent.,  and  they  will  be 
issued  on  the  faith  and  security  of  the  proceeds  of  the  duty 
of  one-eighth  of  a  cent  on  every  pound  of  cotton  exported. 
All  vessels  loading  with  cotton  will  be  obliged  to  enter  into 
bonds,  or  give  security  that  they  will  not  carry  their  cargoes 
to  Northern  ports,  or  let  it  reach  Northern  markets  to  their 
knowledge.  The  Government  will  sell  the  cotton  for  cash 
to  foreign  buyers,  and  will  thus  raise  funds  amply  sufficient, 
they  contend,  for  all  purposes  I  make  these  bare  state 
ments,  and  I  leave  to  political  economists  the  discussion  of 
the  question  which  may  and  will  arise  out  of  the  acts  of  the 
Confederate  States.  The  Southerners  argue  that  by  breaking 
from  their  unnatural  alliance  with  the  North  they  will  save 
upward  of  $47,000,000,  or  nearly  £10,000,000  sterling  an 
nually.  The  estimated  value  of  the  annual  cotton  crop  is 
$200,000,000.  On  this -the  North  formerly  made  at  least 
$10,000,000,  by  advance,  interest  and  exchanges,  which  in 
all  came  to  fully  5  per  cent,  on  the  whole  of  the  crop. 
Again,  the  tariff  to  raise  revenue  sufficient  for  the  mainte 
nance  of  the  Government  of  the  Southern  Confederacy  is  far 
less  than  that  which  is  required  by  the  Government  of  the 
United  States.  The  Confederate  States  propose  to  have  a 
tariff  which  will  be  about  12  J  per  cent,  on  imports,  which 
will  yield  $25,000,000.  The  Northern  tariff  is  30  per  cent., 


THE    CIVIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA.  65 

and  as  the  South  took  from  the  North  $70,000,000  worth  of 
manufactured  goods  and  produce,  they  contribute,  they  assert, 
to  the  maintenance  of  the  North  to  the  extent  of  the  differ 
ence  between  the  tax  sufficient  for  the  support  of  their  Gov 
ernment,  and  that  which  is  required  for  the  support  of  the 
Federal  Government.     Now  they  will   save  the   difference 
between  30  per  cent,  and  12 \  per  cent.  (17£  per  cent),  which 
amounts   to   837,000,000,  which,  added   to   the   saving  on 
commissions,  exchanges,  advances,  &c.,  makes  up  the  good 
round  sum  which  I  have  put  down  higher  up.     The  South 
erners  are  firmly  convinced  that  they  have  "  kept  the  North 
going  "  by  the  prices  they  have  paid  for  the  protected  articles 
of  their  manufacture,  and  they  hold  out  to  Sheffield,  to  Man 
chester,  to  Leeds,  to  Wolverhampton,  to  Dudley,  to  Paris,  to 
Lyons,  to  Bordaaux,  to  all  the  centres  of  English  manufac 
turing  life,  as  of  French  taste  and  luxury,  the  tempting  baits 
of  new  and  eager  and  hungry  markets.     If  their  facts  and 
statistics  are  accurate,  there  can  be  no  doubt  of  the  justice 
of  their  deductions  on  many  points ;    but  they  can  scarcely 
be  correct  in  assuming  that  they  will  bring  the  United  States 
to  destruction  by  cutting  off  from  Lowell  the  600,000  bales 
of  cotton  which  she  usually  consumes.     One  great  fact,  how 
ever,  is  unquestionable  —  the  Government  has  in  its  hands 
the  souls,  the  wealth,  and  the  hearts  of  the  people.     They 
will  give  anything  — money,  labor,  life  itself — to  carry  out 
their  theories.     "  Sir,"  said  an  ex-Governor  of  this  State  to 
me   to-day,  "  sooner  than  submit  to  the  North,  we  will  all 
become  subject  to  Great  Britain  again."     The  same  gentle 
man  is  one  of  the  many  who  have  given  to  the  Government 
a  large  portion  of  their  cotton  crop  every  year  as  a  free-will 
offering.     In  his  instance  his  gift  is  one  of  500  bales  of  cot 
ton,  or  £5,000  per  annum,  and  the  papers  teem  with  accounts 
of  similar  "  patriotism "  and  devotion.     The   ladies  are  all 
making  sand-bags,  cartridges,  and  uniforms,  and,  if  possible, 
they  are  more  fierce  than  the  men.     The  time  for  mediation 
is  past,  if  it  ever  were  at  hand  or  present  at  all ;    and  it  is 
scarcely  possible  now  to  prevent  the  processes  of  phleboto- 
mization  which  are  supposed  to  secure  peace  and  repose. 

There  was  no  intelligence  of  much  interest  on  Sunday, 
but  there  is  a  general  belief  that  Arkansas  and  Missouri 
will  send  in  their  adhesion  to  the  Confederacy  this  week, 
and  the  Commissioners  from  Virginia  are  hourly  expected. 
The  attitude  of  that  State,  however,  gives  rise  to  apprehen 
sions  lest  there  may  bo  a  division  of  her  strength  ;  and  any 
6* 


66  THE    CIVIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA. 

aggression  on  her  territories  by  the  Federal  Government, 
such  as  that  contemplated  in  taking  possession  of  Alexandria, 
would  be  hailed  by  the  Montgomery  Government  with  sin 
cere  joy,  as  it  would,  they  think,  move  the  State  to  more 
rapid  action  and  decision. 

Montgomery  is  on  an  undulating  plain,  and  covers  ground 
large  enough  for  a  city  of  two  hundred  thousand  inhabi 
tants,  but  its  population  is  only  twelve  thousand.  Indeed, 
the  politicians  here  appear  to  dislike  large  cities,  but  the 
city  designers  certainly  prepare  to  take  them  if  they  come. 
There  is  a  large  negro  population,  and  a  considerable 
number  of  a  color  which  forces  me  to  doubt  the  evidences 
of  my  senses  rather  than  the  statements  made  to  me  by 
some  of  my  friends,  that  the  planters  affect  the  character  of 
parent  in  their  moral  relations  merely  with  the  negro  race. 
A  waiter  at  the  hotel  —  a  tall,  handsome  young  fellow,  with 
the  least  tinge  of  color  in  his  cheek,  not  as  dark  as  the 
majority  of  Spaniards  or  Italians  —  astonished  me  in  my 
ignorance  to-day  when,  in  reply  to  a  question  asked  by  one 
of  our  party,  in  consequence  of  a  discussion  on  the  point, 
he  informed  me  he  "  was  a  slave."  The  man,  as  he  said  so, 
looked  confused  ;  his  manner  altered.  He  had  been  talking 
familiarly  to  us,  but  the  moment  he  replied,  "  I  am  a  slave, 
Sir,"  his  loquacity  disappeared,  and  he  walked  hurriedly 
and  in  silence  out  of  the  room.  The 'river  Alabama,  on 
which  the  city  rests,  is  a  wide,  deep  stream,  now  a  quarter 
of  a  mile  in  breadth,  with  a  current  of  four  miles  an  hour. 
It  is  navigable  to  Mobile,  upward  of  four  hundred  miles, 
and  steamers  ascend  its  waters  for  many  miles  beyond  this 
intj  the  interior.  The  country  around  is  well  wooded,  and 
is  richly  cultivated  in  broad  fields  of  cotton  and  Indian  corn, 
but  the  neighborhood  is  not  healthy,  and  deadly  feveis  are 
said  to  prevail  at  certain  seasons  of  the  year.  There  is  not 
much  animation  in  the  streets,  except  when  "  there  is  a 
difficulty  among  the  citizens,"  or  in  the  eternal  noise  of  the 
hotel  steps  and  bars.  I  was  told  this  morning  by  the  hotel 
keeper  that  I  was  probably  the  only  person  in  the  house, 
or  about  it,  who  had  not  loaded  revolvers  in  his  pockets, 
and  one  is  aware  occasionally  of  an  unnatural  rigidity 
scarcely  attributable  to  the  osseous  structure  in  the  persons 
of  those  who  pass  ono  in  the  crowded  passages. 

Mov DAY,  May  6.  —  To-day  I  visited  the  Capitol,  where 
the  Provisional  Congress  is  sitting.  On  leaving  the  hotel, 
which  is  like  a  small  Willard's,  so  far  as  the  crowd  in  the 


THE    CIVIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA.  67 

hall  is  concerned,  my  attention  was  attracted  to  a  group  of 
people  to  whom  a  man  was  holding  forth  in  energetic  sen 
tences.  The  day  was  hot,  but  I  pushed  near  to  the  spot, 
for  I  like  to  hear  a  stump  speech,  or  to  pick  up  a  stray 
morsel  of  divinity  in  the  via  sacra  of  strange  cities,  and  it 
appeared  as  though  the  speaker  was  delivering  an  oration 
or  a  sermon.  The  crowd  was  small.  Three  or  four  idle 
men  in  rough,  homespun,  makeshift  uniforms,  leaned  against 
the  iron  rails  inclosing  a  small  pond  of  foul,  green-looking 
water,  surrounded  by  brick-work,  which  decorates  the 
space  in  front  of  the  Exchange  Hotel.  The  speaker  stood 
on  an  empty  deal  packing  case.  A  man  in  a  cart  was  lis 
tening  with  a  lack-lustre  eye  to  the  address.  Some  three 
or  four  others,  in  a  sort  of  vehicle,  which  might  eithar  be  a 
hoarse  or  a  piano-van,  had  also  drawn  up  for  the  benefit  of 
the  address.  Five  or  six  other  men,  in  long  black  coats 
and  high  hats,  some  whittling  sticks,  and  chewing  tobacco, 
and  discharging  streams  of  discolored  saliva,  completed  the 
group.  ''Nine  h'hun'  nerd  and  fifty  dollars  !  Only  nine 
h-hun'  nerd  and  fifty  dollars  offered  for  him,"  exclaimed  the 
man,  in  the  tone  of  injured  dignity,  remonstrance,  and  sur 
prise,  which  can  be  insinuated  by  all  true  auctioneers  into 
the  dryest  numerical  statements.  "  Will  no  one  make  any 
advance  on  nine  hundred  and  fifty  dollars?  "  A  man  near 
me  opened  his  mouth,  spat,  and  said,  "  Twenty-five." 
*"  Only  nine  hundred  and  seventy-five  dollars  offered  for 
him.  Why,  at's  radaklous  —  only  nine  hundred  and  seventy- 
five  dollars!  Will  no  one,"  &c.  Beside  the  orator  auc 
tioneer  stood  a  stout  young  man  of  five-and-twenty  years  of 
age,  with  a  bundle  in  his  hand.  He  was  a  muscular  fellow, 
broad-shouldered,  narrow-flanked,  but  rather  small  in 
stature  ;  he  had  on  a  broad,  greasy,  old  wide-awake,  a  blue 
jacket,  a  coarse  cotton  shirt,  loose  and  rather  ragged  trow- 
sers,  and  broken  shoes.  The  expression  of  his  face  was  heavy 
and  sad,  but  it  was  by  no  means  disagreeable,  in  spite  of  his 
thick  lips,  broad  nostrils,  and  high  cheek-bones.  On  his  head 
was  wool  instoad  of  hair.  I  am  neither  sentimentalist,  nor 
Black  Republican,  nor  negro- worshiper,  but  I  confess  the 
sight  caused  a  strange  thrill  through  my  heart.  I  tried  in  vain 
to  make  myself  familiar  with  the  fact  that  I  could,  for  the 
sum  of  nine  hundred  and  seventy-five  dollars,  become  as 
absolutely  the  owner  of  that  mass  of  blood,  bones,  sinew, 
flesh,  and  brains,  as  of  the  horse  which  stood  by  my  side. 
There  was  no  sophistry  which  could  persuade  me  the  man 


68  THE    CITIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA. 

was  not  a  man — he  was,  indeed,  by  no  means  my  brother, 
but  assuredly  he  was  a  fellow  creature.  I  have  seen  slave 
markets  in  the  East,  but  somehow  or  other  the  Orientalism 
of  the  scene  cast  a  coloring  over  the  nature  of  the  sales 
there  which  deprived  them  of  the  disagreeable  harshness 
and  matter-of-fact  character  of  the  transaction  before  me. 
For  Turk,  or  Smyrniote,  or  Egyptian,  to  buy  and  sell 
slaves,  seemed  rather  suited  to  the  eternal  fitness  of  things 
than  otherwise.  The  turbaned,  shawled,  loose-trowsered, 
pips-smoking  merchants,  speaking  an  unknown  tongue, 
looked  as  if  they  were  engaged  in  a  legitimate  business. 
One  knew  that  their  slaves  would  not  be  condemned  to  any 
very  hard  labor,  and  that  they  would  be  in  some  sort  the 
inmates  of  the  family  and  members  of  it.  Here  it  grated 
on  my  ear  to  listen  to  the  familiar  tones  of  the  English 
tongue  as  the  medium  by  which  the  transfer  was  effected, 
and  it  was  painful  to  see  decent-looking  men  in  European 
garb  engaged  in  the  work  before  me.  Perchance  these  im 
pressions  may  wear  off,  for  I  me'et  many  English  people 
who  are  the  most  strenuous  advocates  of  the  slave  system, 
although  it  is  true  that  their  perceptions  may  be  quickened 
to  recognize  its  beauties  by  their  participation  in  the  profits. 
The  negro  was  sold  to  one  of  the  bystanders,  and  walked 
off  with  his  bundle,  God  knows  where.  "  Niggers  is 
cheap,"  was  the  only  remark  of  the  bystanders.  I  continued 
my  walk  up  a  long,  wide,  straight  street,  or,  more  properly, 
an  unpaved  sandy  road,  lined  with  wooden  houses  on  each 
side,  and  with  trees  by  the  side  of  the  footpath.  The  lower 
of  the  two  stories  is  generally  used  as  a  shop,  mostly  of  the 
miscellaneous  store  kind,  in  which  all  sorts  of  articles  are 
to  be  had,  if  there  is  any  money  to  pay  for  them  ;  and,  in 
the  present  case,  if  any  faith  is  to  be  attached  to  the  con 
spicuous  notices  in  the  windows,  credit  is  of  no  credit,  and 
the  only  thing  that  can  be  accepted  in  exchange  for  the  goods 
is  "•  cash."  At  the  end  of  this  long  street,  on  a  moderate 
eminence,  stands  a  whitewashed  or  painted  edifice,  with  a 
gaunt,  lean  portico,  supported  on  lofty,  lanky  pillars,  and 
surmounted  by  a  subdued  and  dejected-looking  little  cupola. 
Passing  an  unkempt  lawn,  through  a  very  shabby  little  gate 
way  in  a  brick  frame,  and  we  ascend  a  flight  of  -steps  into  a 
ha:i,  from  which  a  double  staircase  conducts  us  to  the  ves 
tibule  of  the  Chamber.  Anything  much  more  offensive  to 
the  eye  cannot  well  be  imagined  than  the  floor  and  stairs. 
They  are  stained  deeply  by  tobacco  juice,  which  have  left 


THE    CIVIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA.  69 

its  marks  on  the  white  stone  steps,  and  on  the  base  of  the 
pillars  outside.  In  the  hall  which  we  have  entered  there 
are  two  tables,  covered  with  hams,  oranges,  bread  and  fruits, 
for  the  refreshment  of  members  and  visitors,  over  which  two 
sable  goddesses,  in  portentous  crinoline,  preside.  The  door 
of  the  chamber  is  open,  and  we  are  introduced  into  a  lofty, 
well-lighted  and  commodious  apartment,  in  which  the  Con 
gress  of  the  Confederate  States  hold  its  deliberations.  A 
gallery  runs  half  round  the  room,  and  is  half  filled  with 
visitors  — country  cousins,  and  farmers  of  cotton  and  maize, 
and,  haply,  seekers  of  places,  great  or  small.  A  light  and 
low  semi-circular  screen  separates  the  body  of  the  house, 
where  the  members  sit,  from  the  space  under  the  gallery, 
which  is  appropriated  to  ladies  and  visitors.  The  clerk  sits 
at  a  desk  above  this  table,  and  on  a  platform  behind  him 
are  the  desk  and  chair  of  the  presiding  officer  or  Speaker  of 
the  Congress.  Over  his  head  hangs  the  unfailing  portrait 
of  Washington,  and  a  small  engraving,  in  a  black  frame,  of 
a  gentleman  unknown  to  me.  Seated  in  the  midst  of 
them,  at  a  Senator's  desk,  I  was  permitted  to  "  assist,"  in 
the  French  sense,  at  the  deliberations  of  the  Congress.  Mr. 
Howell  Cobb  took  the  chair,  and  a  white-headed  clergyman 
was  called  upon  to  say  prayers,  which  he  did,  upstanding, 
with  outstretched  hands  and  closed  eyes,  by  the  side  of  the 
Speaker.  The  prayer  was  long  and  sulphureous.  One 
more  pregnant  with  gunpowder  I  never  heard,  nor  could 
aught  like  it  have  been  heard  since 

*'  Pulpit,  drum  ecclesiastic, 
Was  beat  with  fist  instead  of  a  stick." 

The  Rev.  gentleman  prayed  that  the  Almighty  might  be 
pleased  to  inflict  on  the  arms  of  the  United  States  such  a 
defeat,  that  it  might  be  the  example  of  signal  punishment  for 
ever  ;  that  this  President  might  be  blessed,  and  that  the 
other  President  might  be  the  other  thing  ;  that  the  gallant, 
devoted  young  soldiers,  who  were  fighting  for  their  country, 
might  not  suffer  from  exposure  to  the  weather  or  from  the 
bullets  of  their  enemies ;  and  that  the  base  mercenaries 
who  were  fighting  on  the  other  side  might  come  to  sure 
and  swift  destruction ;  and  so  on. 

Are  right  and  wrong  mere  geographical  expressions  ?  The 
prayer  was  over  at  last,  and  the  House  proceeded  to  business. 
Although  each  State  has  several  delegates  in  Congress,  it  is 
only  entitled  to  one  vote  on  a  strict  division.  In  this  way  some 


70  THE    CIVIL    WAR    IX    AMERICA. 

curious  decisions  may  be  arrived  at,  as  the  smallest  State  is 
equal  to  the  largest,  and  a  majority  of  the  Florida  repre 
sentatives  may  neutralize  a  vote  of  all  the  Georgia  represen 
tatives.  For  example,  Georgia  has  ten  delegates ;  Florida 
has  only  three.  The  vote  of  Florida,  however,  is  deter 
mined  by  the  action  of  any  two  of  its  three  representatives, 
and  these  two  may,  on  a  division,  throw  the  one  State  vote 
into  the  scale  against  that  of  Georgia,  for  which  ten  mem 
bers  are  agreed.  The  Congress  transacts  all  its  business 
in  secret  session,  and  finds  it  a  very  agreeable  and  commend 
able  way  of  doing  it.  Thus,  to-day,  for  example,  after  the 
presentation  of  a  few  unimportant  motions  and  papers,  the 
Speaker  rapped  his  desk,  and  announced  that  the  House 
would  go  into  secret  session,  and  that  all  \yho  were  not 
members  should  leave. 

As  I  was  returning  to  the  hotel  there  was  another  small 
crowd  at  the  fountain.  Another  auctioneer,  a  fat,  flabby, 
perspiring,  puffy  man,  was  trying  to  sell  a  negro  girl  who 
stood  on  the  deal-box  beside  him.  She  was  dressed  pretty 
much  like  a  London  servant  girl  of  the  lower  order  out  of 
place,  except  that  her  shoes  were  mere  shreds  of  leather 
patches,  and  her  bonnet  would  have  scarce  passed  muster  in 
the  New  Cut.  She,  too,  had  a  little  bundle  in  her  hand, 
and  looked  out  at  the  buyers  from  a  pair  of  large  sad  eyes. 
"  Niggers  were  cheap  ;  "  still  here  was  this  young  woman 
going  for  an  upset  price  of  $610,  but  no  one  would  bid, 
and  the  auctioneer,  after  vain  attempts  to  raise  the  price 
and  excite  competition,  said,  "  Not  sold  to-day,  Sally ;  you 
may  get  down." 

TUESDAY,  May  7.  —  The  newspapers  contain  the  text  of 
the  declaration  of  the  state  of  war  on  the  part  of  President 
Davis,  and  of  the  issue  of  letters  of  marque  and  reprisal, 
&c.  But  it  may  be  asked,  who  will  take  these  letters  of 
marque  ?  Where  is  the  Government  of  Montgomery  to  find 
ships  ?  The  answer  is  to  be  found  in  the  fact  that  already 
numerous  applications  have  been  received  from  the  ship 
owners  of  New  England,  from  the  whalers  of  New  Bedford, 
and  from  others  in  the  Northern  States,  for  these  very  letters 
of  marque,  accompanied  by  the  highest  securities  and  guar 
anties  !  This  statement  I  make  on  the  very  highest  author 
ity.  I  leave  it  to  you  to  deal  with  the  facts. 

To-day  I  proceeded  to  the  Montgomery  Downing  Street 
and  Whitehall  to  present  myself  to  the  members  of  the  Cab- 


THE    CIVIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA.  71 

inet,  and  to  'be  introduced  to  the  President  of  the  Confeder 
ate  States  of  America.  There  is  no  sentry  at  the  doors,  and 
access  is  free  to  all,  but  there  are  notices  on  the  doors  warn 
ing  visitors  that  they  can  only  be  received  during  certain 
hours.  The  President  was  engaged  with  some  gentlemen 
when  I  was  presented  to  him,  but  he  received  me  with  much 
kindliness  of  manner,  and  when  they  had  left  entered  into 
conversation  with  me  for  some  time  on  general  matters.  Mr. 
Davis  is  a  man  of  slight,  sinewy  figure,  rather  over  the  mid 
dle  height,  and  of  erect,  soldier-like  bearing.  He  is  about 
fifty-fi ve  years  of  age  ;  his  features  are  regular  and  well- 
defined,  but  the  face  is  thin  and  marked  on  cheek  and  brow 
with  many  wrinkles,  and  is  rather  careworn  and  haggard. 
One  eye  is  apparently  blind,  the  other  is  dark,  piercing,  and 
intelligent.  He  was  dressed  very  plainly  in  a  light  gray 
summer  suit.  In  the  course  of  conversation  he  gave  an 
order  for  the  Secretary  of  War  to  furnish  me  with  a  letter 
as  a  kind  of  passport  in  case  of  my  falling  in  with  the  sol 
diers  of  any  military  posts  who  might  be  indisposed  to  let 
me  pass  freely,  merely  observing  that  I  had  been  enough 
within  the  lines  of  camps  to  know  what  was  my  duty  on 
such  occasions.  I  subsequently  was  presented  to  Mr. 
Walker,  the  Secretary  of  War,  who  promised  to  furnish 
me  with  the  needful  documents  before  I  left  Montgomery. 
In  his  room  were  General  Beauregard  and  several  officers,  en 
gaged  over  plans  and  maps,  apparently  in  a  little  council  of 
Avar,  which  was,  perhaps,  not  without  reference  to  the  intel 
ligence  that  the  United  States  troops  were  marching  on 
Norfolk  Navy  Yard,  and  had  actually  occupied  Alexandria. 
On  leaving  the  Secretary  I  proceeded  to  the  room  of  the 
Attorney  General,  Mr.  Benjamin,  a  very  intelligent  and 
able  man,  whom  I  found  busied  in  preparations  connected 
with  the  issue  of  letters  of  marque.  Everything  in  the 
offices  looked  like  earnest  work  and  business. 

On  my  way  back  from  the  State  Department  I  saw  a  very 
fine  company  of  infantry  and  three  field  pieces,  with  about 
one  hundred  and  twenty  artillerymen,  on  their  march  to 
the  railway  station  for  Virginia.  The  men  weic  all  well 
equipped,  but  there  were  no  ammunition  wagons  for  the  guns, 
and  the  transport  consisted  solely  of  a  few  country  carts 
drawn  by  poor  horses,  out  of  condition.  There  is  no  lack 
of  muscle  and  will  among  the  men.  The  troops  which  I 
see  here  are  quite  fit  to  march  and  fight  as  far  as  their  per 
sonnel  is  concerned,  and  there  is  no  people  in  the  world  so 


72  THE    CIVIL    WAtt    IN    AMERICA. 

crazy  with  military  madness.  The  very  children  in  the 
streets  ape  the  air  of  soldiers,  carry  little  flags,  and  wear 
cockades  as  they  strut  in  the  highways  ;  and  mothers  and 
fathers  feed  the  fever  by  dressing  them  up  as  Zouaves  or 
Chasseurs. 

Mrs.  Davis  had  a  small  levee  to-day  in  right  of  her  posi 
tion  as  wife  of  the  President.  Several  ladies  there  proba 
bly  looked  forward  to  the  time  when  their  States  might 
secede  from  the  new  Confederation,  and  afford  them  the 
pleasure  of  holding  a  reception.  Why  not  Presidents  of 
the  State  of  Georgia,  or  Alabama  ?  Why  not  King  of  South 
Carolina,  or  Emperor  of  Florida  ?  Soldiers  of  fortune,  make 
your  game  !  Gentlemen  politicians,  the  ball  is  rolling.  There 
is,  to  be  sure,  a  storm  gathering  at  the  North,  but  it  cannot 
hurt  you,  and  already  there  are  condottieri  from  all  parts  of 
the  world  flocking  to  your  aid,  who  will  eat  your  Southern 
beeves  the  last  of  all. 

One  word  more  as  to  a  fleet.  The  English  owners  of 
several  large  steamers  are  already  in  correspondence  with 
the  Government  here  for  the  purchase  of  their  vessels.  The 
intelligence  which  had  reached  the  Government  that  their 
Commissioners  have  gone  on  to  Paris  is  regarded  as  unfavor 
able  to  their  claims,  and  as  a  proof  that  as  yet  England  is 
not  disposed  to  recognize  them.  It  is  amusing  to  hear  the 
tone  used  on  both  sides  toward  Great  Britain.  Both  are 
most  anxious  for  her  countenance  and  support,  although  the 
North  blusters  rather  more  about  its  independence  than  the 
South,  which  professes  a  warm  regard  for  the  mother  coun 
try.  "  But,"  says  the  North,  "  if  Great  Britain  recognizes 
the  South,  we  shall  certainly  look  on  it  as  a  declaration  of 
war."  "And,"  says  the  South,  "  if  Great  Britain  does  not 
recognize  our  privateers'  flag,  we  shall  regard  it  as  proof  of 
hostility  and  of  alliance  with  the  enemy."  The  Govern 
ment  at  Washington  seeks  to  obtain  promises  from  Lord 
Lyons  that  our  Government  will  not  recognize  the  Southern 
Confederacy,  but  at  the  same  time  refuses  any  guaranties 
in  reference  to  the  rights  of  neutrals.  The  blockade  of  the 
Southern  ports  would  not  occasion  us  any  great  inconveni 
ence  at  present,  because  the  cotton-loading  season  is  over ; 
but  if  it  be  enforced  in  October,  there  is  a  prospect  of  very 
serious  and  embarrassing  questions  arising  in  reference  to 
the  rights  of  neutrals,  treaty  obligations  with  the  United 
States  Government,  the  trade  and  commerce  of  England,  and 
the  law  of  blockade  in  reference  to  the  distinctions  to  be 
drawn  between  measures  of  war  and  means  of  annoyance. 


THE    CIVIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA.  73 

As  I  write  the  guns  in  front  of  the  State  Department  are 
firing  a  salute,  and  each  report  marks  a  State  of  the  Confed 
eracy.  They  are  now  ten,  as  Arkansas  and  Tennessee  are 
now  out  of  the  Union. 


LETTER    IX. 

FROM    MONTGOMERY    TO    MOBILE. 

MOBILE,  Alabama,  May  11. 

THE  wayfarer  who  confides  in  the  maps  of  a  strange  coun 
try,  or  who  should  rely  upon  even  the  guide-books  of  the 
United  States,  which  still  lack  a  Murray  or  a  Bradshaw, 
may  be  at  times  embarrassed  by  insuperable  hills  and  un- 
navigable  rivers.  When,  however,  I  saw  the  three  tower 
ing  stories  of  the  high-pressure  steamer  Southern  Republic, 
on  board  of  which  we  tumbled  down  the  steep  bank  of  the 
Alabama  river  at  Montgomery,  any  such  misgivings  vanish 
from  my  mind.  So  colossal  an  ark  could  have  ascended  no 
mythical  stream,  and  the  existence  and  capabilities  of  the 
Alabama  were  demonstrated  by  its  presence. 

Punctuality  is  reputed  a  rare  virtue  in  the  river  steamers  of 
the  West  and  South,  which  seldom  leave  their  wharves  until 
they  have  bagged  a  fair  complement  of  passengers,  although 
steaming  up  and  ringing  gongs  and  bells  every  afternoon 
for  a  week  or  more  before  their  departure,  as  if  travellers 
were  to  be  swarmed  like  bees.  Whether  stimulated  by  the 
infectious  activity  of  these  "  war  times,"  or  convinced'  that 
the  "  politeness  of  kings  "  is  the  best  steamboat  policy,  the 
grandson  of  Erin  who  owns  and  commands  the  Southern 
Republic  casts  off  his  fastenings  but  half  an  hour  after  his 
promised  start,  and  the  short  puff  of  the  engine  is  enlivened 
by  the  wild  strains  of  a  steam-organ  called  a  "  calliope," 
which  gladdens  us  with  the  assurance  that  we  are  in  the  in 
comparable  "  land  of  Dixie."  • 

Reserving  for  a  cooler  hour  the  attractions  of  the  lower 
floor  —  a  Hades  consecrated  to  machinery,  freight,  and  ne 
groes  —  we  betake  ourselves  to  the  second  landing,  where 
we  find  a  long  dining-hall  surrounded  by  two  tiers  of  state 
rooms,  the  upper  one  accessible  by  a  stairway  leading  to  a 
gallery,  which  divides  the  "  saloon  "  between  floor  and°roof. 
7 


74  THE    CIVIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA. 

We  are  shown  to  our  quarters,  which  leave  much  to  be  de 
sired  and  nothing  to  spare,  and  rush  from  their  suffocating 
atmosphere  to  the  outer  balcony,  where  a  faint  breeze  stirs 
the  air.  There  is  a  roofed  balcony  above  us  that  corres 
ponds  to  the  second  tier  of  state  rooms,  from  which  a  party 
of  excited  Secessionists  are  discharging  revolvers  at  the  dip 
pers  on  the  surface  and  the  cranes  on  the  banks  of  the  river. 

After  we  have  dropped  down  five  or  six  miles  from  Mont 
gomery,  the  steam  whistle  announces  our  approach  to-  a  land 
ing,  and,  as  there  is  no  wharf  in  view,  we  watch  curiously 
the  process  by  which  our  top-heavy  craft,  under  the  sway  of 
a  four-knot  current,  is  to  swing  round  in  her  invisible  moor 
ings.  As  we  draw  nigh  to  a  wagon-worn  indenture  in  the 
bank,  the  "  scream  "  softens  into  the  dulcet  pipes  of  the 
"  calliope,"  and  the  steamer  doubles  upon  her  track,  like  an 
elephant  turning  at  bay,  her  two  engines  being  as  independ 
ent  of  each  other  as  Seceding  States,  and,  slowly  stemming 
the  stream,  lays  her  nose  upon  the  bank,  and  holds  it  there, 
with  the  judicious  aid  of  her  paddles,  until  a  long  plank  is 
run  ashore  from  her  bow,  over  which  three  passengers,  with 
valises,  make  way  for  a  planter  and  his  family,  who  come  on 
board.  The  gang-plank  is  hauled  in,  the  steamer  turns  her 
head  down  stream  with  the  expertness  of  a  whale  in  a  canal, 
and  we  resume  our  voyage.  We  renew  these  stoppages  at 
various  times  before  dark,  landing  here  a  barrel  and  there  a 
box,  and  occasionally  picking  up  a  passenger. 

After  supper,  which  is  served  on  a  series  of  parallel  tables 
running  athwart  the  saloon,  we  return  to  enjoy  from  the 
balcony  the  cool  obscurity  of  the.  evening  in  this  climate, 
where  light  means  heat.  As  we  cleave  the  glass  surface  of 
the  black  water,  the  timber-clad  banks  seem  to  hem  us  in 
more  closely  and  to  shut  up  in  the  vista  before  us,  and  while 
we  glide  doAvn  with  a  rapidity  which  would  need  but  the 
roar  of  rapids  to  prefigure  a  cataract  beyond,  we  yield  to  the 
caprice  of  fancy,  instituting  comparisons  between  the  dark 
perspective  ahead  and  the  mystery  of  the  future. 

Again  a  scream,  and  a  ruddy  light  flashes  from  .our  prow 
and  deepens  the  shade's  around  us.  This  proceeds  from 
the  burning  of  "  light  wood  " —  a  highly  resinous  pine  —  in 
a  wire  basket  hung  on  gimbals  and  held  like  a  landing-net 
below  the  bow  of  the  steamer,  so  as  to  guide  without  blind 
ing  the  pilot,  who  is  ensconced  like  a  Hansom  cabman 
upon  its  roof.  The  torch-bearer  raises  his  cresset  as  we 
steam  up  to  the  bank,  and  plants  it  in  a  socket,  when  a  haw- 


THE    CIVIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA. 


75 


ser  is  seized  round  a  tree,  and  the  crew  turned  ashore  to 
"  wood  up."  There  is  a  steep  high  bank  above  us,  and 
while  dusky  forms  are  flitting  to  and  fro  with  food  for  our 
furnaces,  we  survey  a  long  stairway  ascending  the .  bank  at  a 
sharp  angle  in  a  cut,  which  is  lost  in  the  sheds  that  crown 
the  eminence  over  head.  This  stair  is  flanked  on  either 
side  by  the  bars  of  an  iron  tramway,  up  which  freight  is 
hauled  when  landed,  and  parallel  to  it  is  a  wooden  slide, 
down  which  bales  of  cotton  and  sacks  of  corn  are  shot  upon 
the  steamer.  One  or  two  passengers  slowly  ascend,  and  a 
voice  in  the  air  notifies  us  that  a  team  is  at  hand  with  a 
load  of  ladies,  who  shortly  after  are  seen  picking  their  way 
down  the  flight  of  steps.  The  cresset  is  constantly  replen 
ished  with  fresh  light  wood,  and  the  shadows  cast  by  its 
flickering  flame  make  us  regret  that  we  have  not  with  us  a 
Turner  to  preserve  this  scene,  which  would  have  been  a 
study  for  Rembrandt  or  Salvator  Rosa. 

At  midnight  we  halt  for  a  couple  of  hours  at  Selma,  a 
"  rising  town,"  which  has  taken  a  start  of  late,  owing  to 
the  arrival  of  a  branch  railway,  that  connects  it  with  Ten 
nessee  and  the  Mississippi  River.  Here  a  huge  embarca- 
dere,  several  stories  high,  seems  fastened  to  the  side  of  the 
bank,  and  affords  us  an  opportunity  of  stepping  out  from 
either  story  of  the  Southern  Republic  upon  a  correspond 
ing  landing.  Upon  one  of  these  floors  there  are  hackmen 
and  hotel  runners,  competing  for  those  who  land,  and  indi 
cating  the  proximity  of  a  town,  if  not  a  city.  Our  captain 
had  resolved  upon  making  but  a  short  stay,  in  lieu  of  tying 
up  until  morning  —  his  usual  practice  —  when  an  acquaint 
ance  comes  on  board  and  begs  him  to  wait  an  hour  for  a 
couple  of  ladies  and  some  children,  whom  he  will  hunt  up  a 
mile  or  so  out  of  town.  Times  are  hard,  and  the  captain 
very  cheerfully  consents,  not  insensible  to  the  flattering 
insinuation  :  "  You  know  our  folks  never  go  with  any  one 
but  you,  if  they  can  help  it." 

The  next  day  and  evening  are  a  repetition  of  the  fore 
going  scenes,  with  more  plantations  in  view  and  a  general 
air  of  tillage  and  prosperity.  We  are  struck  by  the  unifor 
mity  of  the  soil,  which  everywhere  seems  of  inexhaustible 
fertility,  and  by  the  unvarying  breadth  of  the  stream,  which, 
but  for  its  constantly  recurring  sinuosities,  might  pass  for  a 
broad  ship  canal.  We  also  remark  that  the  bluffs  rarely 
sink  into  bottoms  susceptible  of  overflow,  and  admire  the 
verdure  of  the  primitive  forest,  a  tangle  of  magnolias  in  full 


76  .       THE    CIVIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA. 

flower,  of  laurel,  and  of  various  oaks  peculiar  to  this 
region,  and  which,  though  never  rising  to  the  dignity  of 
that  noble  tree  in  higher  latitudes,  are  many  of  them  ex 
tremely  graceful.  All  this  sylva  of  moderate  stature  is 
intertwined  with  creepers,  and  at  intervals  we  see  the  Span 
ish  moss,  indicating  the  malarious  exhalations  of  the  soil 
beneath.  The  Indian  corn,  upon  which  the  Southerners 
rely  principally  for  food,  has  attained  a  height  of  two  feet, 
and  we  were  told  that,  in  consequence  of  the  war,  it  is  sown 
in  greater  breadth  than  usual.  The  cotton  plant  has  but 
just  peeped  above  the  earth,  and,  alluding  to  its  tenderness, 
those  around  us  express  anxieties  about  that  crop,  which,  it 
seems,  are  never  allayed  until  it  has  been  picked,  bagged 
and  pressed,  shipped  and  sold. 

As  I  am  not  engaged  upon  an  itinerary,  let  these 
sketches  suffice  to  convey  an  idea  of  the  four  hundred  and 
seventeen  miles  of  winding  river  which  connect  Montgom 
ery  with  Mobile,  to  which  place  the  Southern  Republic 
conveyed  us  in  thirty-four  hours,  stoppings  included. 

One  of  the  Egyptian  pyramids  owes  its  origin  to  the 
strange  caprice  of  a  princess,  and  the  Southern  Republic  is 
said  to  have  been  built  with  the  proceeds,  of  an  accidental 
"haul"  of  Gold  Coast  natives,  who  fell  into  the  net  of  her 
enterprising  proprietor.  This  worthy,  born  of  Irish  parents 
in  Milk  street,  is  too  striking  a  type  of  what  the  late  Mr. 
Webster  was  wont  to  call  a  "  Northern  man  with  South 
ern  principles,"  not  to  deserve  something  more  than  a 
passing  notice. 

For  out-and-out  Southern  notions  there  is  nothing  in 
Dixie's  Land  like  the  successful  emigrant  from  the  North 
and  East.  Captain  Meagher  had  at  his  fingers'  ends  all  the 
politico-economical  facts  and  figures  of  the  Southern  side 
of  the  question,  and  rested  his  reasoning  solely  upon  the 
more  sordid  and  material  calculations  of  the  Secessionists. 
It  was  a  question  of  tariffs.  The  North  had,  no  doubt, 
provided  the  protection  of  a  navy,  the  facilities  of  mails, 
the  construction  of  forts,  Custom  Houses,  and  Post  Offices, 
in  the  South,  and  placed  countless  well-paid  offices  at  the 
disposal  of  gentlemen  fond  of  elegant  leisure ;  but  for  all 
these  the  South  had  been  paying  more  than  their  value,  and 
when  Abolitionists  were  allowed  to  elect  a  Sectional  Presi 
dent,  and  the  system  of  forced  labor,  which  is  the  basis  of 
Southern  prosperity,  was  threatened,  the  South  were  too 
happy  to  take  a  "  snap  judgment,"  as  in  a  pie  poudre 


THE    CIVIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA.  77 

Court,  and  declare  the  Federal  compact  forfeited  and  annull 
ed  forever. 

During  the  long  second  day  of  our  voyage,  we  examined 
the  faces  of  the  proletarians,  whose  color  and  constitutions 
so  well  adapted  them  for  the  Cyclopian  realms  of  the  main 
deck.  Among  them  we  detect  several  physiognomies  which 
strike  us  as  resembling  seedlings  from  the  Gold  Coast  rather 
than  the  second  or  third  fruits  of  ancient  transplantation. 
A  fellow  traveller  gratifies  at  the  same  time  our  curiosity 
and  our  penetration.  There  are  several  native  Africans,  or, 
as  they  are  called  in  Cuba,  bozales,  on  board.  They  are  the 
property  of  the  argumentative  captain,  and  were  acquired  by 
a  coup  de  main,  at  which  I  have  already  hinted  in  this  let 
ter.  It  seems  that  a  club  of  planters  in  this  State  and  one 
or  two  others  resolved,  little  more  than  a  year  ago,  to  im 
port  a  cargo  of  Africans.  They  were  influenced  partly  by 
cupidity  and  partly  by  fancy  to  set  the  United  States  laws 
at  defiance,  and  to  evince  their  contempt  for  New  England 
philanthropy.  The  job  was  accepted  by  an  Eastern  house, 
which  engaged  to  deliver  the  cargo  at  a  certain  point  on  the 
coast  within  certain  limits  of  time. 

Whether  the  shipment  arrived  earlier  than  anticipated, 
or  whether  Captain  Meagher  was  originally  designed  as  the 
person  to  whom  the  bold  and  delicate  manoeuvre  of  landing 
them  should  be  intrusted,  it  is  certain  that  on  a  certain  Sun 
day  in  last  July  he  took  a  little  coasting  trip  in  his  steamer 
Czar,  and  appeared  at  Mobile  on  the  following  morning  in 
season  to  make  his  regular  voyage  up  river.  It  is  no  less 
certain  that  he  ran  the  dusky  strangers  in  at  night  by  an 
unfrequented  pass,  and  landed  them  among  the  cane-brakes 
of  his  own  plantation  with  sufficient  celerity  to  be  back  at 
the  moorings  of  the  Czar  without  his  absence  having  been 
noticed.  The  vessel  from  which  the  bozales  were  delivered 
was  scuttled  and  sunk,  and  her  master  and  crew  found  their 
way  North  by  rail. 

But  the  parties  in  interest  soon  claimed  to  divide  the 
spoils,  when,  to  their  infinite  disgust,  the  enterprising  Cap 
tain  very  coolly  professed  to  ignore  the  whole  business,  and 
defied  them  to  seek  to  recover  by  suit  at  law  property  the 
importation  of  which  was  regarded  and  would  be  punished 
as  felony,  if  not  as  piracy,  by  the  judicial  tribunals.  A 
case  was  made  and  issue  joined,  when  the  Captain  proved  a 
circumstantial  alibi,  and,  having  cast  the  claimants,  doled 
them  out  a  few  bonzes,  perhaps  to  escape  assassination,  as 
7* 


78  THE    CIVIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA. 

shells,  while  he  kept  the  oyster  in  the  shape  of  the  pick 
of  the  importation,  which  he  still  holds,  reconciling  his 
conscience  to  the  transaction  by  interpreting  it  as  sal 
vage. 

All  this  is  told  us  by  our  interlocutor,  who  was  one  of 
the  losers  by  the  affair,  and  who  stigmatized  the  con 
duct  of  its  hero  as  having  been  treacherous.  The  latter, 
after  repeated  jocular  inquiries,  suffers  his  vanity  to  sub 
due  his  reticence,  and  finishes  by  "  acknowledging  the 
corn." 

In  the  forenoon  of  the  second  day  we  meet  two  steamers 
ascending  the  river,  with  heavy  cargoes,  and  are  told  that 
they  are  the  Keyes  and  the  Lewis,  recently  warned  off,  and 
not  seized  by  the  blockading  squadron  off  Pensacola.  They 
are  deep  with  provisions  for  the  forces  of  the  Confederate 
States  Army  before  Pickens,  which  must  now  be  dispatched 
from  Montgomery  by  rail. 

In  Mobile,  for  the  first  time  since  leaving  Washington, 
"  we  realize  "  the  entire  stagnation  of  business.  There  are 
but  five  vessels  in  port,  chiefly  English,  which  will  suffice 
to  carry  away  the  debris  of  the  cotton  crop.  Exchange  on 
the  North  is  unsalable,  owing  to  the  impossibility  of  im 
porting  coin  through  the  unsettled  country,  and  bills  on 
London  are  of  slow  sale  at  par,  which  would  leave  a 
profit  of  seven  per  cent,  upon  the  importation  of  gold  from 
your  side. 

MOBILE,  Sunday,  May  11. 

The  heat  of  the  city  rendered  an  excursion  to  which  I 
was  invited,  for  the  purpose  of  visiting  the  forts  at  the  en 
trance  of  the  bay,  exceedingly  agreeable,  and  I  was  glad  to 
get  out  from  the  smell  of  warm  bricks  to  the  breezy  waters 
of  the  sea.  The  party  comprised  many  of  the  leading  mer 
chants  and  politicians  of  this  city,  which  is  the  third  in  im 
portance  as  a  port  of  exportation  in  the  United  States  of 
America.  .There  was  not  a  man  among  them  who  did  not 
express,  with  rnore  or  less  determination,  the  resolve  never 
to  submit  to  the  rule  of  the  accursed  North.  Let  there  be 
no  mistake  whatever  as  to  the  unanimity  which  exists  at  pres 
ent  in  the  South  to  fight  for  what  it  palls  its  independence, 
and  to  carry  on  a  war  to  the  knife  with  the  Government  of 
the  United  States.  I  have  frequently  had  occasion  to  re 
mark  the  curious  operation  of  the  doctrine  of  State  Rights 
on  the  minds  of  the  people  :  but  an  examination  of  the  in- 


THE    CIVIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA.  79 

stitntions  of  the  country  as  they  actually  exist  leads  to  the 
inference  that,  where  the  tyranny  of  the  majority  is  at  once 
irresponsible  and  cruel,  it  is  impossible  for  any  man,  where 
the  doctrine  prevails,  to  resist  it  with  safety  or  success.  It 
is  the  inevitable  result  of  the  action  of  this  majority,  as  it 
operates  in  America,  first  to  demoralize  and  finally  to  ab 
sorb  the  minority ;  and  even  those  who  have  maintained 
what  are  called  "  Union  doctrines,"  and  who  are  opposed 
to  secession  or  revolution,  have  bowed  their  heads  before 
the  majesty  of  the  mass,  and  have  hastened  to  signify  their 
acquiescence  in  the  decisions  which  they  have  hitherto  op 
posed.  The  minority,  cowardly  in  consequence  of  the 
arbitrary  and  vindictive  character  of  the  overwhelming 
power  against  which  it  has  struggled,  and  disheartened  by 
defeat,  of  which  the  penalties  are  tremendous  in  such  con 
flicts  as  these,  hastens  to  lick  the  feet  of  the  conqueror,  and 
rushes  with  frantic  cheers  after  the  chariot  in  the  triumph 
which  celebrates  its  own  humiliation.  If  there  be  a  mino 
rity  at  all  on  this  great  question  of  Secession  in  the  South 
ern  States,  it  hides  in  holes  and  corners,  inaccessible  to  the 
light  of  day,  and  sits  there  in  darkness  and  sorrow,  silent 
and  fearful,  if  not  dumb  and  hopeless.  There  were  officers 
who  had  served  with  distinction  under  the  flag  of  the  United 
States,  now  anxious  to  declare  that  it  was  not  their  flag, 
and  that  they  had  no  affection  for  it,  although  they  were 
ready  to  admit  they  would  have  continued  to  serve  under  it 
if  the  States  had  not  gone  out.  A  man's  State,  in  fact, 
under  the  operation  of  these  majority  doctrines  to  which  I 
have  adverted,  holds  hostages  for  his  fidelity  to  the  majori 
ty,  not  only  in  such  land  or  fortune  as  he  may  possess  within 
her  bounds,  but  in  his  family,  his  relatives,  and  kin,  and  if 
the  State  revolts,  the  officer  who  remains  faithful  to  the  flag 
of  the  United  States  is  considered  by  the  authorities  of  the 
revolting  State  a  traitor,  and,  what  is  worse,  he  is  treated 
in  the  persons  of  those  he  leave  behind  him  as  the  worst 
kind  of  political  renegade.  General  Scott,  but  a  few  months 
ago  the  most  honored  of  men  in  a  Republic  which  sets  such 
store  on  military  success,  is  now  reviled  and  abused  because, 
being  a  Virginian  by  birth,  he  did  not  immediately  violate 
his  oath,  abandon  his  post,  and  turn  to  fight  against  the  flag 
which  he  has  illustrated  by  repeated  successes,  during  a 
career  of  half  a  century,  the  moment  his  State  passes  an 
ordinance  of  Secession. 

An  intelligent  and  accomplished  officer,  who  accompanied 


80  THE    CIVIL    WAR    IX    AMERICA. 

me  to-day  around  the  forts  under  his  command,  told  me  that 
he  had  all  along  resisted  Secession,  but  that  when  his  State 
went  out  he  felt  it  was  necessary  to  resign  his  commission 
in  the  United  States  army,  and  to  take  service  with  the 
Confederates.  Among  the  most  determined  opponents  of 
the  North,  and  the  most  vehement  friends  of  what  are  called 
here  "  domestic  institutions,"  are  the  British  residents, 
English,  Irish,  and  Scotch,  who  have  settled  here  for  trad 
ing  purposes,  and  who  are  frequently  slave-holders.  These 
men  have  no  State  rights  to  uphold,  but  they  are  convinced 
of  the  excellence  of  things  as  they  are,  or  find  it  their 
interest  to  be  so. 

The  waters  of  two  rivers  fall  into  the  head  of  the  Bay  of 
Mobile,  which  is,  in  fact,  a  narrow  sea  creek  between  low, 
sandy  banks,  covered  with  pine  and  forest  trees,  broken 
here  and  there  into  islands,  and  extending  some  thirty  miles 
inland,  with  a  breadth  varying  from  three  to  seven  miles. 
No  attempt  has  been  made  apparently  to  improve  the  waters 
or  to  provide  docks  or  wharfage  for  the  numerous  cotton 
ships  which  lie  out  at  the  mouth  of  the  bay,  more  than 
twenty-five  miles  from  Mobile.  All  the  cotton  has  to  be 
sent  down  to  them  in  lighters,  and  the  number  of  men  thus 
employed  in  the  cotton  season  in  loading  the  barges,  navi 
gating  and  transferring  the  cargoes  to  the  ships,  is  very  con 
siderable,  and  their  rate  of  wages  is  high. 

The  horror  entertained  by  a  merchant  captain  of  the  shore 
is  well  known,  and  skippers  are  delighted  at  an  anchorage 
so  far  from  land,  which  at  the  same  time  detains  the  crews 
in  the  ships  and  prevents  absenteeism  and  "  running."  At 
present  there  are  but  seven  ships  at  the  anchorage,  nearly 
all  British,  and  one  of  the  latter  appears  in  the  distance  hard 
and  fast  ashore,  though  whether  she  got  there  in  consequence 
of  the  light  not  being  burning  or  from  neglect,  it  is  impos 
sible  to  say.  Fort  Gaines,  on  the  right  bank  of  the  channef, 
near  the  entrance,  is  an  unfinished  shell  of  a  fort,  which  was 
commenced  by  the  United  States  engineers  some  time  ago, 
and  which  it  would  not  be  easy  to  finish  without  a  large 
outlay  of  money  and  labor.  It  is  not  well  placed  to  resist 
either  a  land  attack  or  an  assault  by  boats.  A  high  sand 
bank  in  front  of  one  of  the  faces  screens  the  fire,  and  a 
wood  on  another  side,  if  occupied  by  riflemen,  would  render 
it  difficult  to  work  the  barbette  guns.  It  is  not  likely, 
however,  that  the  fort  will  be  attacked.  The  channel  it 
commands  is  only  fit  for  light  vessels.  From  this  fort  to  the 


THE    CIVIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA.    /  81 

other  side  of  the  channel,  where  Fort  Morgan  stands,  the 
distance  is  over  three  miles,  and  the  deep  water  channel  is 
close  to  the  latter  fort.  The  position  at  Gaines  is  held  by  a 
strong  body  of  Alabama  troops  —  stout,  sturdy  men,  who 
have  volunteered  from  farm,  field,  or  desk.  They  are  armed 
with  ordinary  muskets  of  the  old  pattern,  and  their  uniform 
is  by  no  means  uniform ;  but  the  men  look  fit  for  service. 
The  fort  would  take  a  garrison  of  five  hundred  men  if  fully 
mounted,  but  the  parapets  are  mere  partition  walls  of  brick 
work  crcnelled  ;  the  bomb-proofs  are  unfinished,  and  but  for 
a  few  guns  mounted  on  the  sand-hills,  the  place  is  a  defence 
less  shell-trap.  There  are  no  guns  in  the  casemates,  and 
there  is  no  position  ready  to  bear  the  weight  of  a  gun  in 
barbette.  The  guns  which  are  on  the  beach  are  protected 
by  sand-bags  traversed,  and  are  more  formidable  than  the 
whole  fortress.  The  steamer  proceeded  across  the  channel 
to  Fort  Morgan,  which  is  a  \york  of  considerable  importance, 
and  is  assuming  a  formidable  character  under  the  superin 
tendence  of  Colonel  Hardee,  formerly  of  the  United  States 
army.  It  has  a  regular  trace,  bastion,  and  curtain,  with  a 
dry  ditch  and  drawbridge,  well-made  casemates  and  bomb- 
proofs,  and  a  tolerable  armament  of  columbiads,  42  and  32- 
pounders,  a  few  IQ-inch  mortars,  and  light  guns  in  the 
external  works  at  the  salients.  The  store  of  ammunition 
seems  ample.  Some  of  the  fuses  are  antiquated,  and  the 
gun-carriages  are  old-fashioned.  The  open  parade  and  the 
unprotected  gorges  of  the  casemates  would  render  the  work 
extremely  unpleasant  under  a  shell  fire,  and  the  buildings 
and  barracks  inside  are  at  present  open  to  the  influence  of 
heat.  The  magazines  are  badly  traversed  and  inadequately 
protected.  A  very  simple  and  apparently  effective  con 
trivance  for  dispensing  with  the  use  of  the  sabot  in  shells 
was  shown  to  me  by  Colonel  Maury,  the  inventor.  It  consists 
of  two  circular  grummets  of  rope,  one  at  the  base  and  the 
other  at  the  upper  circumference  of  the  shell,  made  by  a 
simple  machinery  to  fit  tightly  to  the  sphere,  and  bound  to 
gether  by  thin  copper  wire.  The  grummets  fit  the  bore  of 
the  gun  exactly,  and  act  as  wads,  allowing  the  base  of  the 
shell  to  rest  in  close  contact  with  the  charge,  and  breaking 
into  oakum  on  leaving  the  muzzle.  Those  who  know  what 
mischief  can  be  done  by  the  fragments  of  the  sabot  when 
fired  over  the  heads  of  troops  will  appreciate  this  simple  in 
vention,  which  is  said  to  give  increased  range  to  the  horizon 
tal  shell.  There  must  be  about  sixty  guns  in  this  work  ;  it 


THE    CIVIL   WAR    IN    AMERICA. 

is  over-garrisoned,  and,  indeed,  it  seems  to  be  the  difficulty 
here  to  know  what  to  do  with  the  home  volunteers.  Rope 
mantlets  are  used  on  the  breeches  of  some  of  the  barbette 
guns.  At  night  the  harbor  is  in  perfect  darkness.  Not 
withstanding  the  defences  I  have  indicated,  it  would  be 
quite  possible  to  take  Fort  Morgan  with  a  moderate  force 
well  supplied  with  the  means  of  vertical  fire. 

"  Are  there  any  mosquitoes  here?"  inquired  I  of  the 
waiter,  on  the  day  of  my  arrival.  "  Well,  there's  a  few,  I 
guess  ;  but  I  wish  there  were  ten  times  as  many."  "  In  the 
name  of  goodness  why  do  you  say  so?  "  asked  I,  with  some 
surprise  and  indignation.  "  Because  we'd  get  rid  of  the 

Black  Republicans  out  of  Fort  Pickens  all  the  sooner," 

replied  he.  There  is  a  strange  unilateral  tendency  in  the 
minds  of  men  in  judging  of  the  operation  of  causes  and 
results  in  such  a  contest  as  that  which  now  prevails  between 
the  North  and  the  South.  The  waiter  reasoned  and  spoke 
like  many  of  his  betters.  The  mosquitoes,  for  whose  aid  he 
was  so  anxious,  were  regarded  by  him  as  true  Southerners, 
who  would  only  torture  his  enemies.  The  idea  of  these 
persecuting  little  fiends  being  so  unpatriotic  as  to  vex  the 
Confederates  in  their  sandy  camp  never  entered  into  his 
mind  for  a  moment.  In  the  same  way  a  gentleman  of  intel 
ligence,  who  was  speaking  to  me  of  the  terrible  sufferings 
which  would  be  inflicted  on  the  troops  at  Tortugas  and  at 
Pickens  by  fever,  dysentery,  and  summer  heats,  looked 
quite  surprised  when  I  asked  him  ''whether  these  agencies 
would  not  prove  equally  terrible  to  the  troops  of  the  Con 
federates  r " 


LETTER    X. 

FORT  PICKENS  AND  PENSACOLA A  VISIT  TO  BOTH  CAMPS. 

MOBILE,  May  16,  1861. 

OUR  little  schooner  lay  quietly  at  the  wharf  all  night, 
but  no  one  was  allowed  to  come  on  board  without  a  pass, 
for  these  wild-looking  sentries  are  excellent  men  of  business, 
and  look  after  the  practical  part  of  soldiering  with  all  the 
keenness  which  their  direct  personal  interest  imparts  to 


THE    CIVIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA.  83 

their  notions  of  duty.  The  enemy  is  to  them  the  incarna 
tion  of  all  evil,  and  they  hunt  his  spies  and  servants  very 
much  as  a  terrier  chases  a  rat  —  with  intense  traditional  and 
race  animosity.  The  silence  of  the  night  is  not  broken  by 
many  challenges,  or  the  "  All's  well  "  of  patrols  ;  but  there 
is  warlike  significance  enough  in  the  sound  of  the  shot 
which  the  working  parties  are  rolling  over  the  wooden  jetty, 
with  a  dull,  ponderous  thumping  on  board  the  flats  that  are 
to  carry  them  off  for  the  food  and  nourriture  of  the  batteries. 
With  the  early  morning,  however,  came  the  moral  signs  of 
martial  existence.  I  started  up  from  among  my  cockroaches, 
knocked  my  head  against  the  fine  pine  beams  over  my  ham 
mock,  and  then,  considerably  obfuscated  by  the  result,  pro 
ceeded  to  investigate  all  the  grounds  that  presented  them 
selves  to  me  as  worthy  of  consideration  in  reference  to  the 
theory  which  had  suddenly  forced  itself  upon  my  mind  that 
I  was  in  the  Crimea.  For  close  at  hand,  through  the  sleepy 
organs  of  the  only  sense  which  was  fully  awake,  came  the 
well-known  reveillee  of  the  Zouaves,  and  then  French 
clangors,  rolls,  ruffles,  and  calls  ran  along  the  line,  and  the 
Volunteers  got  up,  or  did  not,  as  seemed  best  to  them.  An 
ebony  and  aged  Ganymede,  however,  appeared  with  coffee, 
and  told  me,  "  the  Cap'n  wants  ask  weder  you  take  some  bit 
ters,  Sir  ;  "  and,  indeed,  "  the  Captain  "  did  compound  some 
amazing  preparation  for*the  Judges  and  Colonels  present  on 
deck  and  below,  that  met  the  approval  of  them  all,  and  was 
recommending  it  for  its  fortifying  qualities  in  making  a 
Redan  and  Malakhoff  of  the  stomach.  Breakfast  came  in 
due  time  ;  not  much  Persic  apparatus  to  excite  the -hate  of 
the  simple-minded,  but  a  great  deal  of  substantial  matter, 
in  the  shape  of  fried  onions,  ham,  eggs,  biscuit,  with  accom 
paniments  of  iced  water,  Bordeaux,  and  coffee.  Our  guests 
were  two  —  a  broad,  farmer-like  gentleman,  weighing  some 
sixteen  stone,  dressed  in  a  green  frieze  tunic,  with  gold  lace 
and  red  and  scarlet  worsted  facings,  and  a  felt  wide-awake, 
who,  as  he  wiped  his  manly  brow,  informed  me  he  was  a 
"  rifleman."  We  have  some  Volunteers  quite  as  corpulent, 
and  not  more  patriotic,  for  our  farmer  was  a  man  of  many 
bales,  and,  in  becoming  an  officer  in  his  company  of  braves, 
had  given  an  unmistakable  proof  of  devotion  to  his  distant 
home  and  property.  The  other,  a  quiet,  modest,  intelligent- 
looking  young  man,  was  an  officer  in  a  different  battalion, 
and  talked  with  sense  about  a  matter  with  which  sense  has 
seldom  anything  to  do — I  mean  uniform.  He  remarked 


84  THE    CIVIL    WAB.    IN    AMERICA. 

that  in  a  serious  action  and  close  fighting,  or  in  night  work, 
it  would  be  very  difficult  to  prevent  serious  rflistakes,  and 
even  disasters,  owing  to  the  officers  of  the  Confederate 
States'  troops  wearing  the  same  distinguishing  marks  of 
rank  and  similar  uniforms,  whenever  they  can  get  them,  to 
those  used  in  the  regular  service  of  the  United  States,  and 
that  much  inconvenience  will  inevitably  result  from  the 
great  variety  and  wonderful  diversity  of  the  dresses  of  the 
immense  number  of  companies  forming  the  different  regi 
ments  of  Volunteers. 

The  only  troops  near  us  which  were  attired  with  a  regard 
to  military  exactness,  were  the  regiment  of  Zouaves  from 
New  Orleans.  Most  of  these  are  Frenchmen  or  Creoles, 
some  have  belonged  to  the  battalions  which  the  Crimea  first 
made  famous,  and  were  present  before  Sevastopol  and  in 
Italy,  and  the  rest  are  Germans  and  Irish.  Our  friends 
went  off  to  see  them  drill,  but,  as  a  believer  in  the  enchant 
ing  power  of  distance,  I  preferred  to  look  on  at  such  of  the 
manoauvres  as  could  be  seen  from  the  deck.  These  Zouaves 
look  exceedingly  like  the  real  article.  They  are,  perhaps,  a 
trifle  leaner  and  taller,  and  are  not  so  well  developed  at  the 
back  of  the  head,  the  heels,  and  the  ankles,  as  their  proto 
types.  They  are  dressed  in  the  same  way,  except  that  I 
saw  no  turban  on  the  fez  cap.  The  jacket,  the  cummer 
bund,  the  baggy  red  breeches,  and  the  gaiters,  are  all  copies 
of  the  original.  They  are  all  armed  with  rifle-musket  and 
sword-bayonet,  and  their  pay  is  at  the  usual  rate  of  $11,  or 
something  like  £2  6s.  a  month,  with  rations  and  allowances. 
The  officers  do  their  best  to  be  the  true  "  chacal."  I  was 
more  interested,  I  confess,  in  watching  the  motions  of  vast 
shoals  of  mullet  and  other  fish,  which  flew  here  and  there, 
like  flocks  of  plover,  before  the  red  fish  and  other  enemies, 
and  darted  under  our  boat,  than  in  examining  Zouave  drill. 
Once,  as  a  large  fish  came  gamboling  along  the  surface 
close  at  hand,  a  great  gleam  of  white  shot  up  in  the  waves 
beneath,  and  a  boiling  whirl  marked  with  a  crimson  pool, 
which  gradually  melted  off  in  the  tide,  shoved  where  a 
monster  shark  had  taken  down  a  part  of  his  breakfast. 
"  That's  a  ground-sheark,"  quoth  the  skipper.  "  There's 
quite  a  many  of  them  about  here."  Porpoises  passed  by 
in  a  great  hurry  for  Pensacola,  and  now  and  then  a  turtle 
showed  his  dear  little  head  above  the  enviable  fluid  which 
he  honored  with  his  presence.  Far  away  in  the- long  stretch 
of  water  toward  Pensacola  are  six  British  merchantmen  in  a 


THE    CIVIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA.  85 

state  of  blockade ;  that  is,  they  have  only  fifteen  days  to 
cliar  out,  according  to  the  reading  of  the  law  adopted  by 
the  United  States  officers. 

The  Navy  Yard  looks  clean  and  neat  in  the  early  morn 
ing,  and  away  on  the  other  side  of  the  channel  Fort  Pickens 
—  teterrima   causa  —  raises   its  dark  front  from   the   white 
sand  and  green  sward  of  the   glacis,  on  which  a  number  of 
black    objects    invite   inspection    through   a   telescope,   and 
obligingly   resolve    themselves   into    horses    turned    out    to 
graze  on  the  slope.     Fort  M'Rae,  at  the  other  side  of  the 
channel,  as  if  to  irritate  its  neighbor,   flings  out  a  flag  to 
the    breeze,  which  is   the   counterpart  of   the   "  Stars  °and 
Stripes  "  that  wave  from  the   rival  flagstaff,  and  is  at  this 
distance  identical  to  the  eye  until  the  glass  detects  the  soli 
tary  star  in  its  folds  instead  of  the  whole   galaxy.     On  the 
dazzling  snowy  margin  of  sand  that  separates  the  trees  and 
brushwood  from  the  sea,  close  at  hand,  the  outline  of  the 
batteries  which   stud  the  shore  for  miles  is  visible.     Let  us 
go  and  make  a  close  inspection.     Mr.  Ellis,  a  lieutenant  in 
the  Louisiana  regiment,  who  is  aide-de-camp  to  Brigadier- 
General  Bragg,  has  just  arrived  with   a  message  from  his 
chief  to  escort  me  round  all  the  works,  and  wherever  else  I 
like   to   go,    without  any  reservation    whatever.     He   is   a 
handsome,  well-built,  slight  young  fellow,   very  composed 
and   staid  in  manner,  but  full  of  sentiment  for  the  South. 
Returned  from   a  tour  in   Europe,  he  is  all  admiration  for 
English  scenery,  life,  and   habits.     "  After  all,  nature  has 
been  more  bountiful  to  you  than  to  us."     He  is  dressed  in 
a  tight  undress  cavalry  jacket  and  trowsers  of  blue  flannel, 
with  plain   gold  lace  pipings  and  buttons,  but  on  his  heels 
are  heavy  brass   spurs,  worthy  of  the  heaviest  of  field  offi 
cers.     Our  horses  are  standing  in  the  shade  of  a  large  tree 
near  the  wharf,  and  mine  is  equipped  with  a  saddle  of  pon 
derous  brass-work,  on  raised  pummel  and  cantle,  and  hous 
ings,  and  emblazoned  cloth,  and  mighty  stirrups  of  brass  fit 
for  the  stoutest  marshal  that  ever  led  an  army  of  France  to 
victory ;   General   Braxton  Bragg  is  longer  in  the  leg  than. 
Marshal  Pelissier  or   Canrobert,    or  the  writer,  and  as  we 
jogged  along  over  the  deep,   hot  sand,  my  kind  companion, 
in  spite  of  my  assurances  that  the  leathers  were  quite  com 
fortable,  made    himself  and    me   somewhat   uneasy  on   the 
score    of   their   adjustment,    and,   as   there   was   no    imple 
ment  at  hand  to  make  a  hole,  we  turned  into  the  General^ 
court  yard    to    effect  the  necessary    alterations.     The    cry 
8 


Ob  THE    CIVIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA. 

of  "  Orderly "  brought  a  smart,  soldierly  young  man  to 
the  front,  who  speedily  took  me  three  holes  up,  and  as*  I 
was  going  away  he  touched  his  cap  and  said,  "  I  beg  your 
pardon,  Sir,  but  I  often  saw  you  in  the  Crimea."  His 
story  as  he  told  it  was  brief.  He  had  been  in  the  llth 
Hussars,  and  on  the  day  of  the  25th  of  October  he  was  fol 
lowing,  as  he  said,  close  after  Lord  Cardigan  and  Captain 
Nolan,  when  his  horse  was  killed  under  him.  As  he  tried 
to  make  his  escape,  the  Cossacks  took  him  prisoner,  and  for 
eleven  months  he  was  in  captivity,  but  was  exchanged  at 
Odessa.  "  Why  did  you  leave  the  service  ?  "  "  Well,  Sir, 
I  was  one  of  the  two  sergeants  that  was  permitted  to  leave 
in  each  regiment  on  the  close  of  the  war,  and  I  came  away." 
"  But  here  you  are  soldiering  again  ? "  "  Yes,  Sir  ;  I  came 
over  here  to  better  myself,  as  I  thought,  and  I  had  to  enter 
one  of  their  cavalry  regiments,  but  now  I  am  an  orderly." 
He  told  me  further,  that  his  name  was  Montague,  and  that 
he  "  thought  his  father  lived  near  Windsor,  twenty-one 
miles  from  London  ;  "  and  I  was  pleased  to  find  his  supe 
rior  officers  spoke  of  him  in  very  high  terms,  although  I 
could  hare  wished  those  who  spoke  so  were  in  our  own 
service. 

I  do  not  think  that  any  number  of  words  can  give  a  good 
idea  of  a  long  line  of  "detached  batteries.  I  went  through 
them  all,  and  I  certainly  found  stronger  reasons  than  ever 
for  distrusting  the  extraordinary  statements  which  appear 
in  the  American  journals  in  reference  to  military  matters, 
particularly  on  their  own  side  of  the  question.  Instead  of 
hundreds  of  guns,  there  are  -only  ten.  They  are  mostly  of 
small  calibre,  and  the  gun-carriages  are  old  and  unsound,  or 
new  and  rudely  made.  There  are  only  five  "  heavy  "  guns 
in  all  the  works,  but  the  mortar  batteries,  three  in  number, 
of  which  one  is  unfinished,  will  prove  very  damaging,  al 
though  they  will  only  contain  nine  or  ten  mortars.  The 
batteries  are  all  sand-bag  and  earthworks,  with  the  exception 
of  Fort  Barrancas.  They  are  made  after  all  sorts  of  ways, 
and  are  of  very  different  degrees  of  efficiency.  In  some 
the  magazines  will  come  to  speedy  destruction  ;  in  others 
they  are  well  made.  Some  are  of  the  finest  white  sand, 
and  will  blind  the  gunners,  or  be  blown  away  with  shells  ; 
others  are  cramped,  and  hardly  traversed ;  others,  again, 
are  very  spacious,  and  well  constructed.  The  embrasures 
are  usually  made  of  sand- bags,  covered  with  raw  hide,  to 
save  the  cotton  bags  from  the  effect  of  the  fire  of  their  own 


THE    CIVIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA.  87 

guns.     I  was  amused   to   observe  that  most  of  these  works 
had  galleries  in  the  rear,  generally,  in  connection  with  the 
magazine    passages,    which    the    constructors    called    "rat- 
holes,"  and  which  are  intended  as  shelter  to  the  men  at  the 
guns,  in  case   of  shells   falling  inside  the   battery.     They 
may  prove  to  have  a  very  different  result,  and  are  certainly 
not  so  desirable  in  a  military  point  of  view  as  good  traverses. 
A  rush  for   the  "  rat-holes  "  will  not   be  very  dignified  or 
improving  to  the  morale  every  time  a  bomb  hurtles  over 
them  ;  and  assuredly  the  damage  to  the  magazines  will  be 
enormous  if  the  fire  from  Pickens  is  accurate  and  well  sus 
tained.     Several  of  the  batteries  were  not  finished,  and  the 
men  who  ought  to  have  been  working  were  lying  under  the 
shade  of  trees,   sleeping  or   smoking  —  long-limbed,  long- 
bearded  fellows  in  flannel  shirts  and  slouched  hats,  uniform- 
less  in  all  save  bright,  well-kept  arms,  and  resolute  purpose. 
We  went  along  slowly  from  one   battery  to  the  other.     I 
visited  nine  altogether,  not  including  Fort  Barrancas,  and 
there  are  three  others,  among  which  is   Fort  M'Rae.     Per 
haps   there  may   be  fifty  guns  of  all  sorts   in  position  for 
about  three  miles,  along  a  line  exceeding  136  deg.  around 
Fort   Pickens,   the  average  distance  being  about  1£  mile. 
The  mortar  batteries  are  well    placed    among  brushwood, 
quite  out  of  view  to  the  fort,  at  distances  varying  from  2,500 
to  2,800  yards,  and   the   mortars   are  generally  of  callibres 
nearly  corresponding  with   our  10-inch  pieces.      Several  of 
the  gun  batteries  are  put  on  the  level  of  the  beach ;  others 
have  more   command,  and  one   is  particularly  well  placed, 
close  to  the  White  Lighthouse,  on  a  raised  plateau,  which 
dominates  the  sandy  strip  that  runs  out  to    Fort  M'Rae. 
Of  the  latter  I  have  already  spoken.     Fort  Barrancas  is  an 
old  fort  —  I  believe  of  Spanish  construction,   with  a  very 
meagre   trace  —  a  plain  curtain-face   toward   the  sea,   pro 
tected  by  a  dry  ditch   and   an   outwork,  in  which,  however, 
there  are  no  guns.     There   is  a  drawbridge  in  the  rear  of 
the  work,  which  is  a  simple  parallelogram,  showing  twelve 
guns  mounted  en  barbette  on   the  sea-face.     The  walls  are 
of  brick,  and  the  guns   are  protected   by  thick  merlons  of 
sand-bags.    The  sole  advantage  of  the  fort  is  in  its  position; 
it  almost  looks  down   into  the  casemates  of  Pickens  oppo 
site,  at  its  weakest  point,  and  it  hag  a  fair  command  of  the 
sea   entrance,  but  the   guns   are  weak,  and  there  are  only 
three  pieces  mounted  which  can  do  much  mischief.     While    ' 
I  was  looking  round  there  was  an  entertaining  dispute  going 


88  THE    CIYIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA. 

on  between  two  men,  whom  I  believe  to  have  been  officers, 
as  to  the  work  to  be  done,  and  I  heard  the  inferior  intimate 
pretty  broadly  his  conviction  that  his  chief  did  not  know 
his  own  business  in  reference  to  some  orders  he  was  con 
veying. 

The  amount  of  ammunition  which  I  saw  did  not  appear 
to  me  to  be  at  all  sufficient  for  one  day's  moderate  firing, 
and  many  of  the  shot  were  roughly  cast  and  had  deep 
flanges  from  the  moulds  in  their  sides,  very  destructive  to 
the  guns  as  well  as  to  accuracy.  In  the  rear  of  these  batte 
ries,  among  the  pine  woods  and  in  deep  brush,  are  three 
irregular  camps,  which,  to  the  best  of  my  belief,  could  not 
contain  more  than  2,  700  men.  There  are  probably  3,000  in 
and  about  the  batteries,  the  Navy  Yard,  and  the  suburbs, 
and  there  are  also,  I  am  informed,  1,500  at  Pensacola,  but  I 
doubt,  exceedingly  that  there  are  as  many  as  8,000  men,  all 
told,  of  effective  strength  under  the  command  of  Gen.  Bragg. 
It  would  be  a  mistake  to  despise  these  Irregulars.  One  of 
the  Mississippi  regiments  out  in  camp  was  evidently  com 
posed  of  men  who  liked  campaigning,  and  who  looked  as 
though  they  would  like  fighting.  They  had  no  particular 
uniforms  —  the  remark  will  often  be  made  —  but  they  had 
pugnacious  physiognomies,  and  the  physical  means  of  car 
rying  their  inclinations  into  effect,  and  eVery  man  of  them 
was,  I  am  informed,  familiar  with  the  use  of  arms.  Their 
tents  are  mostly  small  and  bad,  on  the  ridge-pole  pattern, 
with  side  flys  to  keep  off  the  sun.  In  some  battalions  they 
observe  regularity  of  line,  in  others  they  follow  individual 
or  company  caprice.  The  men  use  green  boughs  and  bow 
ers,  as  our  poor  fellows  did  in  the  old  hot  days  in  Bulgaria, 
and  many  of  them  had  benches  and  seats  before  their  doors, 
and  the  luxury  of  boarded  floors  to  sleep  upon. 

There  is  an  embarrassing  custom  in  America,  scarcely 
justifiable  in  any  code  of  good  manners,  which  in  the  South 
at  least  is  too  common,  and  which  may  be  still  more  general 
in  the  North  ;  at  all  events,  to  a  stranger  it  is  productive  of 
the  annoyance  which  is  experienced  by  one  who  is  obliged 
to  inquire  whether  the  behavior  of  those  among  whom  he  is 
at  the  time  is  intentional  rudeness  or  conventional  want  of 
breeding.  For  instance,  my  friend  and  myself,  as  we  are 
riding  along,  see  a  gentleman  standing  near  his  battery  or 
his  tent  —  "  Good-morrow,  Colonel,"  or  "  General  "  (as  the 
case  may  be),  says  my  friend  —  "  Good-morrow  (imagining 
military  rank  according  to  the  notion  possessed  by  speaker 


THE    CIVIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA.  89 

of  the  importance  of  the  position  of  a  General's  A.  D.  C.), 
Ellis."  "  Colonel,  &c.,  allow  me  to  introduce  to  you  Mr. 
Jones  of  London."  The  Colonel  advances  with  effusion, 
holds  out  his  hand,  grasps  Jones's  hand  rigidly,  and  says 
warmly,  as  if  he  had  just  gained  a  particular  object  of  his 
existence,  "  Mr.  Jone.-,  I  am  very  glad  to  make  your  ac 
quaintance,  Sir. .  Have  you  been  pretty  well  since  you  have 
been  in  this  country,  Sir?  "  &c.  But  it  is  most  likely  that 
the  Colonel  will  just  walk  away  when  he  pleases,  without 
saying  a  word  to  or  taking  the  least  notice  of  the  aforesaid 
Jones,  as  to  whose  acquaintance  he  had  just  before  expressed 
such  friendly  feelings,  and  in  whose  personal  health  he  had 
taken  so  deep  an  interest ;  and  Jones,  till  he  is  accustomed 
to  it,  feels  affronted.  The  fact  is,  that  the  introduction 
means  nothing ;  you  are  merely  told  each  other's  names, 
and  if  you  like  you  may  improve  your  acquaintance.  The 
hand  shaking  is  a  remnant  of  barbarous  times,  when  men 
with  the  same  colored  skin  were  glad  to  see  each  other. 

The  country  through  which  we  rode  was  most  uninterest 
ing,  thick  brushwood  and  pine  trees  springing  out  of  deep 
sand,  here  and  there  a  nullah  and  some  dirty  stream  —  all 
flat  as  ditchwater.  On  our  return  we  halted  at  the  Gen 
eral's  quarters.  I  had  left  a  note  for  him,  in  which  I  in 
quired  whether  he  would  have  any  objection  to  my  proceed 
ing  to  Fort  Pickens  from  his  command,  in  case  I  obtained 
permission  to  do  so,  and  when  I  entered  General  Bragg's 
room  he  was  engaged  in  writing  not  merely  a  very  courte 
ous  and  complimentary  expression  of  his  acquiescence  in 
my  visit,  but  letters  of  introduction  to  personal  friends  in 
Louisiana,  in  the  hope  of  rendering  my  sojourn  more  agree 
able.  He  expressed  a  doubt  whether  my  comrades  would 
be  permitted  to  enter  the  iort,  and  talked  very  freely  with 
me  in  reference  to  what  I  had  seen  at  the  batteries,  but  I 
thought  I  perceived  an  indication  of  some  change  of  purpose 
with  respect  to  the  immediate  urgency  of  the  attack  on  Fort 
Pickens,  compared  with  his  expressions  last  night.  At 
length  I  departed  with  many  thanks  to  General  Bragg  for 
his  kindness  and  confidence,  and  returned  to  a  room  full  of 
Generals  and  Colonels,  who  made  a  levee  of  their  visits. 

On  my  return  to  the  schooner  I  observed  that  the  small 
houses  on  the  side  of  the  long  sandy  beach  were  filled  with 
men,  many  of  whom  were  in  groups  round  the  happy  pos 
sessors  of  a  newspaper,  and  listened  with  the  utmost  interest 
to  the  excited  delivery  of  the  oracular  sentences.  How 
8* 


90  THE    CIVIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA. 

much  of  the  agony  and  bitterness  of  this  conflict  —  nay, 
how  much  of  its  existence  —  may  be  due  to  these  same 
newspapers,  no  man  can  say,  but  I  have  very  decided  opin 
ions,  or  rather  a  very  strong  belief,  on  the  subject.  There 
were  still  more  people  around  the  various  bar-rooms  than 
were  attracted  even  by  the  journalists.  Two  of  our  com 
panions  were  on  board  when  I  got  back  to  the  quay.  The 
Mobile  gentlemen  had  gone  off  to  Pensacola,  and  had  not 
returned  to  time,  and  under  any  circumstances  it  was  not 
probable  that  they  would  be  permitted  to  land,  as  undoubt 
edly  they  were  no  friends  to  the  garrison  or  to  the  cause  of 
the  United  States. 

Ouj-  skipper  opened  his  eyes  and  shook  his  rough  head 
when  he  was  ordered  to  get  under  way  for  Fort  Pickens, 
and  to  anchor  off  the  jetty.  Up  went  the  flag  of  truce  to 
the  fore  once  more,  but  the  ever-watchful  sentry,  diverted 
for  the  time  from  his  superintendence  of  the  men  who  were 
fishing  at  our  pier,  forbade  our  departure  till  the  corporal  of 
the  guard  had  given  leave,  and  the  corporal  of  the  guard 
would  not  let  the  fair  Diana  cast  off  her  warp  till  he  had 
consulted  the  sergeant  of  the  guard,  and  so  there  was  some 
delay  occasioned  by  the  necessity  for  holding  an  interview 
with  that  functionary,  who  finally  permitted  the  captain  to 
proceed  on  his  way,  and  with  a  fair  light  breeze  the  schooner 
fell  round  into  the  tideway  and  [glided  off  towards  the  fort. 
We  drew  up  with  it  rapidly,  and  soon  attracted  the  notice 
of  the  look-out  men  and  some  officers  who  came  down  to  the 
jetty. 

We  anchored  a  cable's  length  from  the  jetty.  In  reply 
to  the  sentry's  hail,  the  skipper  asked  for  a  boat  to  put  off 
for  us.  "  Come  off  in  your  own  boat."  Skiff  of  Sharon ! 
But  there  was  no  choice.  With  all  the  pathos  of  that  re 
markable  structure,  it  could  not  go  down  in  such  a  short 
row.  And  if  it  did  ?  Well,  "  there  is  not  a  more  terrible 
place  for  sharks  along  this  coast,"  the  captain  had  told  us 
incidentally  en  route.  Our  boat  was  inclined  to  impar 
tiality  in  its  relation  with  the  water,  and  took  quite  as  much 
inside  as  it  could  hold,  but  we  soused  into  it,  and  the  men 
pulled  like  Doggett's  Badgers,  and  soon  we  were  out  of 
shark  depth  and  alongside  the  jetty,  where  were  standing  to 
receive  us  Mr.  Brown,  our  friend  of  yesterday,  Captain 
Vogdes,  and  Captain  Berry,  commanding  a  United  States 
battery  in  the  fort.  The  soldiers  of  the  guard  were  United 
States  regular  troops  of  the  artillery,  wore  blue  uniforms 


THE    CIVIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA.  91 

with  brass  buttons  and  remarkably  ugly  slouched  hats,  with 
an  ornament  in  the  shape  of  two  crossed  cannons.  Captain 
Vogdcs  informed  me  that  Col.  Moore  had  sent  off  a  reply  to 
my  letter  to  the  fleet,  stating  that  he  would  gladly  permit 
me  to  go  over  the  fort,  but  that  he  would  not  allow  any  one 
else,  under  any  circumstances,  whatever,  to  visit  it.  My 
friends  were,  therefore,  constrained  to  stay  outside  ;  but  one 
of  them  picked  up  a  friend  on  the  beach,  and  got  up  an  im 
promptu  ride  along  the  island. 

The  way  from  the  jetty  to  the  entrance  of  the  fort  is  in 
the  universal  deep  sand  of  this  part  of  the  world  ;  the  dis 
tance  from  the  landing  place  to  the  gateway  is  not  much 
more  than  two  hundred  yards,  and  the  approach  to  the 
portal  is  quite  unprotected.  There  i^  a  high  ramp  and 
glacis  on  the  land  side,  but  the  face  and  part  of  the  curtain 
in  which  the  gate  is  situate  are  open,  as  it  was  not  consid 
ered  likely  that  it  would  ever  be  attacked  by  Americans. 
The  sharp  angle  of  the  bastion  on  this  face  is  so  weak  that 
men  are  now  engaged  in  throwing  up  an  extempore  glacis 
to  cover  the  base  of  the  wall  and  the  casemates  from  fire. 
The  ditch  is  very  broad,  and  the  scarp  and  counterscarp  are 
riveted  with  brick-work.  The  curvette  has  been  cleared 
out,  and  in  doing  so,  as  a  proof  of  the  agreeable  character  of 
the  locality,  I  may  observe,  upwards  of  sixty  rattlesnakes 
were  killed  by  the  workmen.  An  abattis  has  been  made 
along  the  edge  of  this  part  of  the  ditch  —  a  rough  inclined 
fence  of  stakes  and  boughs  of  trees.  "  Yes,  Sir  ;  at  one 
time  when  those  terrible  fire-eating  gentlemen  at  the  other 
side  were  full  of  threats,  and  coming  to  take  the  place  every 
day,  there  were  only  seventy  men  in  this  fort,  and  Lieut. 
Slemmer  threw  up  this  abattis  to  delay  his  assailants,  if  it 
were  only  for  a  few  minutes,  and  to  give  his  men  breathing 
time  to  use  their  small  arms." 

The  casemates  here  are  all  blinded,  and  the  hospital  is  situ 
ated  in  the  bomb-proofs  inside.  The  gate  was  closed.  At  a 
talismanic  knock  it  was  opened,  and  from  the  external  silence 
we  passed  into  a  scene  full  of  activity  and  life,  through  the 
dark  gallery  which  served  at  first  as  a  framework  to  the 
picture.  The  parade  of  the  fort  was  full  of  men,  and  at  a 
coup  d'oRil  it  was  obvious  that  great  efforts  had  been  made  to 
prepare  Fort  Pickens  for  a  desperate  defence.  In  th?  parade 
were  several  tents  of  what  is  called  Sibley's  pattern,  like  our 
bell  tents,  but  without  the  lower  side  wall,  and  provided 
with  a  ventilating  top,  which  can  be  elevated  or  depressed  at 


92  THE    CIVIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA. 

pleasure.  The  parade  ground  has  been  judiciously  filled 
with  deep  holes,  like  inverted  cones,  in  which  shells  will  be 
comparatively  innocuous  ;  and,  warned  by  Sumter,  every 
thing  has  been  removed  which  could  prove  in  the  least  de 
gree  combustible.  The  officer  on  duty  led  me  straight  across 
to  the  opposite  angle  of  the  fort.  As  the  rear  of  the  case 
mates  and  bomb-proofs  along  this  side  will  be  exposed  to  a 
plunging  fire  from  the  opposite  side,  a  very  ingenious  screen 
has  been  constructed  by  placing  useless  gun  platforms  and 
parts  of  carriages  at  an  angle  against  the  wall,  and  piling  them 
up  with  sand  and  earth  for  several  feet  in  thickness.  A  passage 
is  thus  left  between  the  base  of  the  wall  and  that  of  the 
screen  through  which  a  man  can  walk  with  ease. 

Turning  into  this  passage  we  entered  a  lofty  bomb-proof, 
which  was  the  bed-room  of  the  commanding  officer,  and 
passed  through  into  the  casemate  which  serves  as  his  head 
quarters.  Colonol  Harvey  Brown  received  me  with  every 
expression  of  politeness  and  courtesy.  He  is  a  tall,  spare, 
soldierly-looking  man,  with  a  face  indicative  of  great  resolu 
tion  and  energy,  as  well  as  of  sagacity  and  kindness,  and  his 
attachment  to  the  Union  was  probably  one  of  the  reasons  of 
his  removal  from  the  command  of  Fort  Hamilton,  New 
York,  to  the  charge  of  this  very  important  fort.  He  has 
been  long  in  the  service,  and  he  belonged  to  the  first  class  of 
graduates  who  passed  at  West  Point  after  its  establishment 
in  1818.  After  a  short  and  very  interesting  conversation,  he 
proceeded  to  show  me  the  works,  and  we  mounted  upon  the 
parapet,  accompanied  by  Captain  Berry,  and  went  over  all 
the  defences.  Fort  Pickens  has  a  regular  bastioned  trace, 
in  outline  an  oblique  and  rather  narrow  parallelogram,  with 
the  obtuse  angles  facing  the  sea  at  one  side  and  the  land  at 
the  other.  The  acute  angle,  at  which  the  bastion  toward  the 
enemy's  batteries  is  situated,  is  the  weakest  part  of  the 
work  ;  but  it  was  built  for  sea  defence,  as  I  have  already 
observed,  and  the  trace  was  prolonged  to  obtain  the  greatest 
amount  of  fire  on  the  sea  approaches.  The  crest  of  the  par 
apet  is  covered  with  very  solid  and  well-made  merlons  of 
heavy  sand-bags,  but  one  face  and  the  gorge  of  the  bastion 
are  exposed  to  an  enfilading  fire  from  Fort  M'Rae,  which 
the  Colonel  said  he  intended  to  guard  against  if  he  got  time. 

All  the  guns  seemed  in  good  order,  the  carriages  being 
well  constructed,  but  they  are  mostly  of  what  are  considered 
small  calibres  now-a-days,  being  32-pounders,  with  some  42- 
pounders  and  24-pounders.  There  are,  however,  four  heavy 


THE    CIVIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA.  93 

columbiads,  which  command  the  enemy's  works  on  several 
points  very  completely.  It  struck  me  that  the  bastion  guns 
were  rather  crowded.  But,  even  in  its  present  state,  the 
defensive  preparations  are  most  creditable  to  the  officers, 
who  have  had  only  three  weeks  to  do  the  immense  amount 
of  work  before  us.  The  brick  copings  have  been  removed 
from  the  parapets,  and  strong  sand-bag  traverses  have  been 
constructed  to  cover  the  gunners,  in  addition  to  the  "  rat- 
holes  "  at  the  bastions.  More  heavy  guns  are  expected, 
which,  with  the  aid  of  a  few  more  mortars,  will  enable  the 
garrison  to  hold  their  own  against  everything  but  a  regular 
siege  on  the  land  side,  and  so  long  as  the  fleet  covers  the 
narrow  neck  of  the  island  with  its  guns,  it  is  not  possible  for 
the  Confederates  to  effect  a  lodgment.  If  Fort  M'Rae 
were  strong  and  heavily  armed,  it  could  infliot  great  damage 
on  Pickens  ;  but  it  is  neither  one  nor  the  other,  and  the 
United  States  officers  are  confident  that  they  will  speedily 
render  it  quite  untenable. 

The  bouches  d  feu  of  the  fort  may  be  put  down  at  forty, 
including  the  available  pieces  in  the  casemates,  which  sweep 
the  ditch  and  the  faces  of  the  curtains.  The  walls  are  of 
the  hardest  brick,  of  nine  feet  thickness  in  many  places,  and 
the  crest  of  the  parapets  on  which  the  merlons  and  traverses 
rest  are  of  turf.  From  the  walls  there  is  a  splendid  view  of 
the  whole  position,  and  I  found  my  companions  were  per 
fectly  well  acquainted  with  the  strength  and  locus  of  the 
greater  part  of  the  enemy's  works.  Of  course  I  held  my 
peace,  but  I  was  amused  at  their  accuracy.  "  There  are  the 
quarters  of  our  friend,  General  Bragg."  "  There  is  one  of 
their  best  batteries  just  beside  the  lighthouse."  The  tall% 
chimney  of  the  Warrington  Navy  Yard  was  smoking  away 
lustily.  The  Colonel  called  my  attention  to  it.  "  Do  you 
see  that,  Sir  ?  They  are  casting  shot  there.  The  sole  reason 
for  their  '  forbearance  '  is  that  Navy  Yard.  They  know  full 
well  that  if  they  open  a  gun  upon  us  we  will  lay  that  yard 
and  all  the  work  in  ruins."  Captain  Vogdes  subsequently 
expressed  some  uneasiness  on  a  point  as  to  which  I  could 
have  relieved  his  mind  very  effectually.  He  had  seen  some 
thing  which  led  him  to  apprehend  that  the  Confederates  had 
a  strong  intrenched  camp  in  the  rear  of  their  works.  There 
upon  I  was  enabled  to  perceive  that  in  Captain  Vogdes'  mind 
there  was  a  strong  intention  to  land  and  carry  the  enemy's 
position.  Why,  otherwise,  did  you  care  about  an  intrenched 
camp,  most  excellent  engineer  ?  But  now  I  may  tell  you 


94  THE    CIVIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA. 

that  there  is  no  intrenched  camp  at  all,  and  that  your  vigi 
lant  eye,  Sir,  merely  detected  certain  very  absurd  little  fur 
rows  which  the  Confederates  have  in  some  places  thrown  up 
in  the  soft  sand  in  front  of  their  camps,  which  would  cover 
a  man  up  to  the  knee  or  stomach,  and  are  quite  useless  as  a 
breastwork.  If  they  thought  a  landing  probable,  it  is  un 
pardonable  in  them  to  neglect  such  a  protection.  These 
furrows  are  quite  straight,  and  even  if  they  are  deepened  the 
assailants  have  merely  to  march  round  them,  as  they  extend 
only  for  some  forty  or  fifty  yards,  and  have  no  flanks.  The 
officers  of  the  garrison  are  aware  the  enemy  have  mortar 
batteries,  but  they  think  the  inside  of  the  fort  will  not  be 
easily  hit,  and  they  said  nothing  to  show  that  they  were 
acquainted  with  the  position  of  the  mortars. 

From  the  parapet  we  descended  by  a  staircase  into  the 
casemates.  The  Confederates  are  greatly  deceived  in  their 
expectation  that  the  United  States  troops  will  be  much  ex 
posed  to  the  sun  or  heat  in  Pickens.  More  airy,  well-venti 
lated  quarters  cannot  be  imagined,  and  there  is  quite  light 
enough  to  enable  the  men  to  read  in  most  of  them.  The 
plague  of  flies  will  infest  both  armies,  and  is  the  curse  of 
every  camp  in  summer.  As  to  mosquitoes,  the  Confederates 
will  probably  suffer,  if  not  more,  at  least  as  much  as  the 
States'  troops.  The  effect  of  other  tormentors,  such  as  yel 
low  fever  and  dysentery,  will  be  in  all  probability  felt  on 
both  sides ;  but,  unless  the  position  of  the  fort  is  peculiarly 
unhealthy,  the  men,  who  are  under  no  control  in  respect  to 
their  libations,  will  probably  suffer  more  than  those  who  are 
restrained  by  discipline  and  restricted  to  a  regular  allowance. 
t  Water  can  always  be  had  by  digging,  and  is  fit  to  use  if 
drunk  immediately.  Vegetables  and  fresh  provisions  are 
not  of  course  so  easily  had  as  on  shore,  but  there  is  a  scar 
city  of  them  in  both  camps,  and  the  supplies  from  the  store- 
ships  are  very  good  and  certain.  The  bread  baked  by  the 
garrison  is  excellent,  as  I  had  an  opportunity  of  ascertaining, 
for  I  carried  off  two  loaves  from  the  bakehouse  on  board  our 
schooner. 

Our  walk  through  the  casemates  was  very  interesting. 
They  were  crowded  withxmen,  most  of  whom  were  reading. 
They  were  quiet,  orderly-looking  soldiers  —  a  mixture  of 
old  and  young  —  scarcely  equal  in  stature  to  their  opponents, 
but  more  to  be  depended  upon,  I  should  think,  in  a  long 
struggle.  Everything  seemed  well  arranged.  Those  men 
who  were  in  bed  had  mosquito  curtains  drawn,  and  were 


THE    CIVIL    WAH    IN    AMERICA.  95 

reading  or  sleeping  at  their  ease.  In  the  casemates  used  as 
a  hospital  there  were  only  some  twelve  men  sick  out  of  the 
whole  garrison,  and  I  was  much  struck  by  the  absence  of 
any  foul  smell,  and  by  the  cleanliness  and  neatness  of  all  the 
arrangements.  The  Colonel  spoke  to  each  of  the  men  kindly, 
and  they  appeared  glad  to  see  him.  The  dispensary  was  as 
neat  as  care  and  elbow-grease  could  make  it,  and  next  door 
to  it,  in  strange  juxtaposition,  was  the  laboratory  for  the 
manufactory  of  fusees  and  deadly  implements,  in  equally 
good  order.  Everything  is  ready  for  immediate  service.  I 
am  inclined  to  think  it  will  be  some  time  before  it  is  wanted. 
Assuredly,  if  the  enemy  attack  Fort  Pickens,  they  will  meet 
with  a  resistance  which  will  probably  end  in  the  entire  de 
struction  of  the  Navy  Yard  and  of  the  greater  part  of  their 
works.  A  week's  delay  will  enable  Colonel  Brown  to  make 
good  some  grave  defects  ;  but  delay  is  of  more  advantage  to 
his  enemy  than  it  is  to  him,  and  if  Fort  Pickens  were  made 
at  once  point  d'appui  for  a  vigorous  offensive  movement  by 
the  fleet  and  by  a  land  force,  I  have  very  little  doubt  in  my 
mind  that  Pensacola  must  fall,  and  that  General  Bragg  would 
be  obliged  to  retire.  In  a  few  weeks  the  attitude  of  affairs 
may  be  very  different.  The  railroad  is  open  to  General 
Bragg,  and  he  can  place  himself  in  a  very  much  stronger 
attitude  than  he  now  occupies. 

At  last  the  time  came  for  me  to  leave.  The  Colonel  and 
Captain  Berry  came  down  to  the  beach  with  me.  Outside 
we  found  Captain  Vogdes  kindly  keeping  my  friends  in  con 
versation  and  in  liquid  supplies  in  the  shade  of  the  bake 
house  shed,  and,  after  a  little  more  pleasant  conversation, 
we  were  afloat  once  more.  Probably  no  living  man  was  ever 
permitted  to  visit  the  camps  of  two  enemies  within  sight  of 
each  other  before  this  under  similar  circumstances,  for  I  was 
neither  spy  nor  herald,  and  I  owe  my  best  thanks  to  those 
who  trusted  me  on  both  sides  so  freely  and  honorably.  A 
gentleman  who  preceded  me  did  not  fare  quite  so  well.  He 
landed  on  the  island  and  went  up  to  the  fort,  where  he  repre 
sented  himself  to  be  the  correspondent  of  an  American  jour- 
rial.  But  his  account  of  himself  was  not  deemed  satisfactory. 
He  was  sent  off  to  the  fleet.  Presently  there  came  over  a 
flag  of  truce  from  General  Bragg,  with  a  warrant  signed  by 
a  justice  of  the  peace,  for  the  correspondent,  on  a  charge  of 
felony  ;  but  the  writ  did  not  run  in  P'ort  Pickens.  The  offi 
cers  regarded  the  message  as  a  clever  ruse  to  get  back  a  spy, 
and  the  correspondent  is  still  in  durance  vile,  or  in  safety, 
as  the  case  may  be,  on  board  the  squadron. 


96  THE    CIVIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA. 

All  sails  filled,  the  Diana  stood  up  toward  the  Navy 
Yard  once  more  in  the  glare  of  the  setting  sun.  The  senti 
nels  along  the  battery  and  beach  glared  at  us  with  surprise 
as  the  schooner,  with  her  flag  of  truce  still  flying,  ran  past 
them'.  The  pier  was  swept  with  the  glass  for  the  Mobile 
gentlemen  ;  they  were  not  visible.  "  Hollo  !  Mr.  Captain, 
what's  that  you're  at  ?  "  His  mate  was  waving  the  Con 
federate  flag  from  the  deck.  "  It's  only  a  signal,  Sir,  to 
the  gentlemen  on  shore."  "  Wave  some  other  flag,  then, 
while  there's  a  flag  of  truce  flying,  and  while  we  are  in 
these  waters."  After  backing  and  filling  for  some  time, 
the  party  were  descried  in  the  distance.  Again,  the  watery 
skiff  was  sent  off,  and  in  a  few  minutes  they  were  permitted, 
thanks  to  their  passes,  to  come  off.  Some  confidential  per 
son  had  informed  them  the  attack  was  certainly  coming  off 
in  a  very  short  time.  They  were  anxious  to  stay.  They 
had  seen  friends  at  Pensacola,  and  were  full  of  praises  of 
"  the  quaint  old  Spanish  settlement,"  but  mine  is,  unfortu 
nately,  not  an  excursion  of  pleasure,  and  it  was  imperative 
that  I  should  not  waste  time.  Everything  had  been  seen 
that  was  necessary  for  my  purpose.  It  was  beyond  my 
power  to  state  the  reasons  which  led  me  to  tjhink  no  fight 
would  take  place,  for  doing  so  would  have  been  to  betray 
confidence.  And  so  we  parted  company  :  they  to  feast 
their  eyes  on  a  bombardment — and  if  they  only  are  near 
enough  to  see  it,  they  will  heartily  regret  their  curiosity,  or 
I  am  mistaken  —  and  we  to  return  to  Mobile. 

It  was  dark  before  the  Diana  was  well  down  off  Fort 
Pickens  again,  and,  as  she  passed  out  to  sea,  between  it 
and  Fort  M'Rae,  it  was  certainly  to  have  been  expected 
that  one  side  or  other  would  bring  her  to.  Certainly  our 
friend  Mr.  Brown,  in  his  clipper  Oriental,  would  overhaul 
us  outside  ;  and  there  lay  a  friendly  bottle  in  a  nest  of  ice 
waiting  for  the  gallant  sailor,  who  was  to  take  farewell  of 
us  according  to  promise.  Out  we  glided  into  night,  and 
into  the  cold  sea  breeze,  which  blew  fresh  and  strong  from 
the  north.  In  the  distance  the  black  form  of  the  Powhatan 
could  be  just  distinguished  ;  the  rest  of-  the  squadron  could 
not  be  made  out  by  either  eye  or  glass,  nor  was  the  schooner 
in  sight.  A  lantern  was  hoisted  by  my  orders,  and  was 
kept  aft  some  time  after  the  schooner  was  clear  of  the  forts. 
Still  no  schooner.  The  wind  was  not  very  favorable  for 
running  toward  the  Powhatan,  and  it  was  too  late  to  ap 
proach  her  with  perfect  confidence  from  the  enemy's  side. 
Beside,  it  was  late  ;  time  pressed. 


THE    C1YIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA.  97 

The  Oriental  was  surely  lying  off  somewhere  to  the  west 
ward,  and  the  word  was  given  to  make  all  sail,  and  soon 
the  Diana  was  bowling  along  shore,  where  the  sea  melted 
away  in  a  fiery  line  of  foam  so  close  to  us  that  a  man  could, 
in  nautical  phrase,  "  shy  a  biscuit"  on  the  sand.  The  wind 
was  abeam,  and  the  Diana  seemed  to  breathe  it  through  her 
sails,  and  flew  along  at  an  astonishing  rate  through  the 
phosphorescent  waters  with  a  prow  of  flame  and  a  bubblino- 
wake  of  dancing  meteor-like  streams  flowing  from  her  helm, 
as  though  it  were  a  furnace  whence  boiled  a  stream  of 
liquid  metal.  "  No  sign  of  the  Oriental  on  our  lee  bow  ?  " 
"  Ncrthin'  at  all  in  sight,  Sir."  The  sharks  and  huge  rays 
flew  off  from  the  shore  as  we  passed  and  darted  out  sea 
wards,  making  their  runs  in  brilliant  trails  of  light.  On 
sped  the  Diana,  but  no  Oriental  came  in  sight. 

I  was  tired.  The  sun  had  been  very  hot ;  the  ride 
through  the  batteries,  the  visits  to  quarters,  the  excursion 
to  Pickens  had-  found  out  my  weak  places,  and  my  head 
was  aching  and  legs  fatigued,  and  so  I  thought  I  would 
turn  in  for  a  short  time,  and  I  dived  into  the  shades  below, 
where  my  comrades  were  already  sleeping,  and  kickino-  ofi* 
my  boots,  lapsed  into  a  state  which  rendered  me  indifferent 
to  the  attentions  no  doubt  lavished  upon  me  by  the  numer 
ous  little  familiars  who  recreate  in  the  well-peopled  timbers 
It  never  entered  into  my  head,  even  in  my  dreams,  that 
the  Captain  would  break  the  blockade  if  he  could  —  particu 
larly  as  his  papers  had  not  been  indorsed,  and  the  penalties 
would  be  sharp  and  sure  if  he  were  caught.  But  the  confi 
dence  of  coasting  captains  in  the  extraordinary  capabilities 

their  craft  is  a  madness  —  a  hallucination  so  strono-  that 
no  danger  or  risk  will  prevent  their  acting  upon  it  whenever 
they  can. 

I  was  assured  once  by  the  «  captain  "  of  a  "  Billyboy  " 
that  he  could  run  to  windward  of  any  frigate  in  her  majesty's 
service,  and  there  is  not  a  skipper  from  Hartlepool  to 
VY  hitstable  who  does  not  believe  his  own  "  Mary  Ann,"  or 
Three  Grandmothers,"  is,  on  certain  "  pints,"  able  to 
bump  her  fat  bows  and  'scuttle-shaped  stern  faster  through 
the  seas  than  any  clipper  which  ever  flew  a  pendant.  I  had 
been  some  two  hours  and  a  half  asleep  when  I  was  awakened 
by  a  whispering  .in  the  little  cabin.  Charley,  the  ne^ro 
cook,  ague-stricken  with  terror,  was  leaning  over  the  bed 
and  in  broken  French  was  chattering  through  his  teeth  — 
"Monsieu,  Monsieu,  nous  sommes  perdus !  The  bateman 


98  THE    CIVIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA. 

de  guerre  nous  poursuit.  II  n'a  pas  encore  tire.  II  va 
tirer  bientot !  Oh  mon  Dieu  !  mon  Dieu  !  "  Through  the 
hatchway  I  could  see  the  skipper  was  at  the  helm,  glancing 
anxiously  from  the  compass  to  the  quivering  reef  points  of 
his  mainsail.  "  What's  all  this  we  hear,  captain  ?  " 
"  Well,  Sir,  there's  been  somethin'  a  r'unnin'  after  us  these 
two  hours  "  (very  slowly).  "  But  I  don't  think  he'll  keech 
us  up  no  how  this  time."  "  But,  good  heavens,  you  know, 
it  may  be  the  Oriental,  with  Mr.  Brown  on  board."  "  Ah 
wall  —  may  bee.  But  he  kep  quite  close  upon  me  in  the 
dark  —  it  gev  me  quite  a  stark  when  I  seen  him.  May  bee, 
says  I,  he's  a  privateerin'  chap,  and  so  I  draws  in  on  shore 
close  as  I  cud,  —  gets  mee  centerboard  in,  and,  says  I,  I'll 
see  what  yer  med  of,  mee  boy.  He  an't  a  gaining  much  on 
us."  I  looked,  and  sure  enough,  about  half  or  three- 
quarters  of  a  mile  astern,  and  somewhat  to  leeward  of  us,  a 
vessel,  with  sails  and  hull  all  blended  into  a  black  lump, 
was  standing  on  in  pursuit.  I  strained  my  eyes  and  fur 
bished  up  the  glasses,  but  I  could  make  out  nothing  definite. 
The  skipper  held  grimly  on.  The  shore  was  so  close  we 
could  have  almost  leaped  into  the  surf,  for  the  Diana,  when 
her  center-board  is  up,  does  not  draw  much  over  four  feet. 
"  Captain,  I  think  you  had  better  shake  your  wind,  and 
see  who  he  is.  It  may  be  Mr.  Brown."  "  Meester  Brown 
or  no  I  can't  help  canine  on  now.  I'd  be  on  the  bank  out 
side  in  a  min.it  if  I  didn't  hold  my  course."  The  captain 
had  his  own  way  ;  he  argued  that  if  it  was  the  Oriental  she 
would  have  fired  a  blank  gun  long  ago  to  bring  us  to  ;  and 
as  to  not  calling  u,s  when  the  sail  was  discovered,  he  took 
up  the  general  line  of  the  cruelty  of  disturbing  people  when 
they're  asleep.  Ah  !  captain,  you  know  well  it  was  Mr. 
Brown,  as  you  let  out  when  we  were  safe  off  Fort  Morgan. 
By  keeping  so  close  in  shore  in  shoal  water  the  Diana  was 
enabled  to  creep  along  to  windward  of  the  stranger,  who 
evidently  was  deeper  than  ourselves.  See  there  !  Her 
sails  shiver !  so  one  of  the  crew  says ;  she's  struck  !  But 
she's  off  again,  and  is  after  us.  We  are  just  within  range, 
and  one's  eyes  become  quite  blinky,  watching  for  the  flash 
from  the  bow,  but,  whether  privateer  or  United  States 
schooner,  she  was  too  magnanimous  to  fire.  A  stern  chase 
is  a  long  chase.  It  must  now  be  somewhere  about  two  in 
the  morning.  Nearer  and  nearer  to  shore  creeps  the  Diana. 
"  I'll  lead  him  into  a  pretty  mess,  whoever  he  is,  if  he  tries 
to  follow  me  through  the  Swash,"  grins  the  skipper.  The 


THE    CIVIL    WAR   IN    AMERICA.  99 

Swash  is  a  very  shallow,  narrow,  and  dangerous  passage 
into  Mobile  Bay,  between  the  sand-banks  on  the  east  of  the 
main  channel  and  the  shore.  Our  pursuer  holds  on,  but 
gains  nothing.  The  Diana  is  now  only  some  nine  or  ten 
miles  from  Fort  Morgan,  guarding  £he  entrance  to  Mobile. 
Soon  an  uneasy,  dancing  motion,  welcome  her  approach  to 
the  Swash.  "  Take  a  cast  of  the  lead,  John  !  "  "  Nine 
feet."  "  Good  !  Again  !  "  "  Seven  feet."  «*  Good  — 
Charley,  bring  the  lantern."  (Oh,  Charley,  why  did  that 
lantern  go  out  just  as  it  was  wanted,  and  not  only  expose 
us  to  the  most  remarkable  amount  of  "  cussin,"  imprecation, 
and  strange  oaths  our  ears  ever  heard,  but  expose  our  lives 
and  your  head  to  more  imminen^  danger  ?)  But  so  it  was, 
just  at  the  critical  juncture  when  a  turn  of  the  helm  port  or 
starboard  made  the  difference  perhaps  between  life  and 
death,  light  after  light  went  out,  and  the  captain  wqnt  danc 
ing  mad,  after  intervals  of  deadly  calmness,  as  the  mate  sang 
out,  "  Five  feet  and  a  half !  seven  feet  —  six  feet  —  eight 
feet  —  five  feet  —  four  and  a  half  feet  (oh  Lord  !)  —  six 
feet,"  and  so  on,  through  a  measurement  of  death  by  inches, 
not  at  all  agreeable.  And  where  was  Mr.  Brown  all  this 
time  ?  Really  we  were  so  much  interested  in  the  state  of 
the  lead -line,  and  in  the  very  peculiar  behavior  of  the  lan 
terns,  which  would  not  burn,  that  we  scarcely  cared  much 
when  we  heard  from  the  odd  hand  and  Charley  that  she  had 
put  about,  after  running  aground  once  or  twice,  they 
thought,  as  soon  as  we  entered  the  Swash,  and  had  vanished 
rapidly  in  the  darkness.  It  was  little  short  of  a  miracle 
that  we  got  past  the  elbow,  for  just  at  the  critical  moment, 
in  a  channel  not  more  than  one  hundred  yards  broad,  with 
only  six  feet  water,  the  binnacle  light,  which  had  burned 
speedily  for  a  minute,  sank  with  a  splutter  into  black  night. 
When  the  passage  was  accomplished  the  captain  relieved 
his  mind  by  chasing  Charley  into  a  corner,  and  with  a  shark 
which  he  held  by  the  tail,  as  the  first  weapon  that  came  to 
hand,  inflicting  on  him  condign  punishment,  and  then  re 
turning  to  the  helm.  Charley,  however,  knew  his  master, 
for  he  slyly  seized  the  shark  and  flung  his  defunct  corpse 
overboard  before  another  fit  of  passion  came  on,  and  by  the 
morning  the  skipper  was  good  friends  with  him,  after  he 
had  relieved  himself  by  a  series  of  castigations  of  the  negli 
gent  lamplighter  with  every  variety  of  Rhadaman thine  im 
plement. 

The  Diana  had  thus  distinguished  her  dirty  little  person 


100  THE    CIYIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA. 

by  breaking  a  blockade,  and  giving  an  excellent  friend  of 
ours  a  great  deal  of  trouble  (if  it  was  indeed  Mr.  Brown), 
as  well  as  giving  us  a  very  unenviable  character  for  want  of 
hospitality  and  courtesy  ;  and  for  both  I  beg  to  "apologize 
with  this  account  of  the  transaction.  But  she  had  a  still 
greater  triumph.  As  she  approached  Fort  Morgan  all  was 
silence.  The  morning  was  just  showing  a  grey  streak  in 
the  east.  "  Why,  they're  all  asleep  at  the  fort,"  observed 
the  indomitable  captain,  and,  regardless  of  gun  or  sentries, 
down  went  his  helm,  and  away  the  Diana  thumped  into 
Mobile  Bay,  and  stole  off  in  the  darkness  toward  the  oppo 
site  shore.  There  was,  however,  a  miserable  day  before  us. 
When  the  light  fairly  broke  we  had  got  only  a  few  miles 
inside,  a  stiff  northerly  wiftd  blew  right  in  our  teeth,  and 
the  whole  of  the  blessed  day  we  spent  tacking  backward 
and  forward  between  one  low  shore  and  another  low  shore, 
in  water'the  color  of  pea-soup,  so  that  temper  and  patience 
were  exhausted,  and  we  were  reduced  to  such  a  state  that 
we  took  intense  pleasure  in  meeting  with  a  drowning  alli 
gator.  He  was  a  nice-looking  young  fellow,  about  ten  feet 
long,  and  had  evidently  lost  his  way,  and  was  going  out  to 
sea  bodily,  but  it  would  have  been  the  height  of  cruelty  to 
take  him  on  board  our  ship,  miserable  as  he  was,  though 
he  passed  within  two  yards  of  us.  There  was,  to  be  sure, 
the  pleasure  of  seeing  Mobile  in  every  possible  view,  far 
and  near,  and  east  and  west,  and  in  a  lump  and  run  out, 
but  it  was  not  relished  any  more  than  our  dinner,  which 
consisted  of  a  very  gamy  Bologna  sausage  pig,  who  had  not 
decided  whether  he  would  be  pork  or  bacon,  and  onions 
fried  in  a  terrible  preparation  of  Charley,  tthe  cook.  At 
five  in  the  evening,  however,  having  been  nearly  fourteen 
hours  beating  about  twenty-seven  miles,  we  were  landed  at 
an  outlying  wharf,  and  I  started  off  for  the  Battle  House 
and  rest.  The  streets  are  fille'd  with  the  usual  rub-a-dub- 
bing  bands,  and  parades  of  companies  of  the  citizens  in  gro 
tesque  garments  and  armament,  all  looking  full  of  fight  and 
secession.  I  write  my  name  in  the  hotel  book  at  the  bar  as 
usual.  Instantly  young  Vigilance  Committee,  who  has 
been  resting  his  heels  high  in  the  air,  with  one  eye  on  the 
staircase  and  the  other  on  the  end  of  his  cigar,  stalks  forth 
and  reads  my  style  and  title,  and  I  have  the  satisfaction  of 
slapping  the  door  in  his  face  as  he  saunters  after  me  to  my 
room,  and  looks  curiously  in  to  see  how  a  man  takes  off  his 
boots.  They  are  all  very  anxious  in  the  evening  to  know 


THE    CIVIL    WAR    IN  'AMERICA.  lOl* 

what  I  think  about  Pickens  and  Pensacola,  and  I  am  pleased 
to  tell  the  citizens  I  think  it  will  be  a  very  tough  affair  on 
both  sides  whenever  it  comes.  I  proceed  to  New  Orleans 
on  Monday. 


LETTER     XI. 

FORT      PICKENS      AND      PENSACOLA A     VISIT      TO      BOTH 

.     CAMPS. 

MOBILE,  May  18,  1861. 

I  AVAIL  myself  of  the  departure  of  a  gentleman  who  is 
going  to  New  York  by  the  shortest  route  he  can  find,  to 
send  you  the  accompanying  letters.  The  mails  are  stopped ; 
so  are  the  telegraphs  ;  and  it  is  doubtful  whether  I  can  get 
to  New  Orleans  by  water.  Of  what  I  saw  at  Fort  Pickens 
and  Pensacola  here  is  an  account,  written  in  a  very  hurried 
manner,  and  under  very  peculiar  circumstances. 

TUESDAY,  May  14,  1861. 

Two  New  Orleans  gentlemen,  who  came  overland  from 
Pensacola  yesterday,  give  such  an  account  of  their  miseries 
from  heat,  dust,  sand,  and  want  of  accommodation,  in  the 
dreary  waste  through  which  they  passed  for  more  than  sev 
enteen  hours,  that  I  sought  out  some  other  way  of  going 
there,  and  at  last  heard  of  a  small  schooner,  called  the  Diana, 
which  would  gladly  undertake  to  run  round  by  sea,  if  per 
mitted  to  enter  by  the  blockading  squadron. 

She  ^  was  neither  clean  nor  neat-looking  ;  her  captaiji,  a 
tall,  wild-haired  young  man,  had  more  the  air  of  a  mechanic 
than  of  a  sailor,  but  he  knew  his  business  well,  as  the  result 
of  the  voyage  showed.  His  crew  consisted  of  three  men 
and  a  negro  cook.  Three  gentlemen  of  Mobile,  who  were 
anxious  to  visit  General  Bragg's  camp,  agreed  to  join  me, 
but  before  I  sailed  I  obtained  a  promise  that  they  would  not 
violate  the  character  of  neutrals  as  long  as  they  were  with 
me,  and  an  assurance  that  they  were  not  in  any  way  engaged 
in  or  employed  by  the  Confederate  States'  forces.  "  Surely 

you  will  not  have  Mr.  R hanged,  Sir?  "  said  the  Mayor 

of  Mobile  to  me  when  I  told  him  I  could  not  consent  to 
pass  off  the  gentleman  in  question  as  a  private  friend.  "  No, 

I  shall  do  nothing  to  get  Mr.  R hanged.  It  will  begins 

9* 


I0'2  THE   -CIVIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA. 

own  act  which  causes  it,  but  I  will  not  allow  Mr.  R to 

accompany  me  under  false  pretences."  Having  concluded 
our  bargain  with  the  skipper  at  a  tolerably  fair  rate,  and  laid 
in  a  stock  of  stores  and  provisions,  the  party  sailed  from 
Mobile  at  five  in  the  evening  of  Tuesday,  May  14,  with  the 
flag  of  the  Confederate  States  flying  ;  but,  as  a  precautionary 
measure,  I  borrowed  from  our  acting  Consul,  Mr.  Magee,  a 
British  ensign,  which,  with  a  flag  of  truce,  would  win  the 
favorable  consideration  of  the  United  States  squadron.  Our 
craft,  the  somewhat  Dutch  build  of  which  gave  no  great 
promise  of  speed,  came,  to  our  surprise  and  pleasure,  up 
with  the  lights  of  Fort  Morgan  at  nine  o'clock,  and  we  were 
allowed  to  pass  unchallenged  through  a  "  swash,"  as  a  nar 
row  channel  over  the  bar  is  called,  which,  despite  the  ab 
sence  of  beacons  and  buoys,  our  skipper  shot  through  under 
the  guidance  of  a  sounding-pole,  which  gave,  at  various 
plunges,  but  few  inches  to  spare. 

The  shore  is  as  flat  as  a  pancake  —  a  belt  of  white  sand, 
covered  with  drift  logs  and  timber,  and  with  a  pine  forest ; 
not  a.  house  or  human  habitation  of  any  sort  to  be  seen  for 
forty  miles,  from  Fort  Morgan  to  the  entrance  of  the  harbor 
of  Pensacola ;  cheerless,  miserable,  full  of  swamps,  the 
haunts  of  alligators,  cranes,  snakes,  and  pelicans  ;  with  la 
goons,  such  as  the  Pcrdida,  swelling  into  inland  seas ;  deep 
buried  in  pine  woods,  and  known  only  to  wild  creatures 
and  to  the  old  fillibusters,  —  swarming  with  mosquitoes. 
As  the  Diana  rushed  along  within  a  quarter  of  a  mile  of 
this  grim  shore,  great  fish  flew  off  from  the  shallows,  and 
once  a  shining  gleam  flashed  along  the  waters  and  winged 
its  way  alongside  the  little  craft  —  a  monster  shark,  which 
plowed  through  the  sea  pari  passu  for -some  hundred  yards 
leeward  of  the  craft,  and  distinctly  visible  in  the  wonderful 
phosphorescence  around  it,  and  then  dashed  away  with  a 
trail  of  light  seaward,  on  some  errand  of  voracity,  with  tre 
mendous  force  and  vigor.  The  wretched  Spaniards  who 
came  to  this  ill-named  Florida  must  often  have  cursed  their 
stars.  How  rejoiced  were  they  when  the  Government  of 
the  United  States  relieved  them  from  their  dominion  !  Once 
during  the  night  some  lights  were  seen  on  shore,  as  if  from 
a  camp  fire.  The  skipper  proposed  to  load  an  old  iron  car- 
ronade  and  blaze  away  at  them,  and  one  of  the  party  actu 
ally  got  out  his  revolver  to  fire,  but  I  objected  very  strongly 
to  these  valorous  proceedings,  and,  suggesting  that  they 
might  be  friends  who  were  there,  and  that,  friends  or  foes, 


THE    CIVIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA.  103 

they  were  sure  to  return  our  fire,  succeeded  in  calming  the 
martial  ardor  on  board  the  Diana.  The  fires  were  very  prob 
ably  made  by  some  of  the  horsemen  lately  sent  out  by  General 
Bragg  to  patrol  the  coast,  but  the  skipper  said  that  in  all  his 
life-long  experience  he  had  never  seen  a  human  creature  or 
a  light  on  that  shore  before.  The  wind  was  so  favorable 
and  the  Diana  so  fast,  that  she  would  have  run  into  the 
midst  of  the  United  States  squadron  off  Fort  Pickens  had 
she  pursued  her  course.  Therefore,  when  she  was  within 
about  ten  miles  of  the  station  she  hove  to,  and  lay  off  and 
on  for  about  two  hours.  Before  dawn  the  sails  were  filled, 
and  off  she  went  once  more,  bowling  along  merrily,  till  with 
the  first  flush  of  day  there  came  in  sight  Fort  M'Rae,  Fort 
Pickens,  and  the  masts  of  the  squadron,  just  rising  above 
the  blended  horizon  of  low  shore  and  sea.  The  former, 
which  is  on  the  western  shore  of  the  mainland,  is  in  the 
hands  of  the  Confederate  troops.  The  latter  is  just  oppo 
site  to  it,  on  the  extremity  of  the  sand-bank  called  Santa 
Rosa  Island,  which  for  forty-five  miles  runs  in  a  belt  par 
allel  to  the  shore  of  Florida,  at  a  distance  varying  from  one 
and  a  quarter  to  four  miles.  To  make  smooth  water  of  it, 
the  schooner  made  several  tacks  shoreward.  In  the  second 
of  these  tacks  the  subtle  entrance  of  Perdida  Creek  is 
pointed  out,  which,  after  several  serpentine  and  reentering 
undulations  of  channel,  one  of  which  is  only  separated 
from  the  sea  for  a  mile  or  more  by  a  thin  wall  of  sand-bank, 
widens  to  meet  the  discharge  of  a  tolerably  spacious  inland 
lake.  The  Perdida  is  the  dividing  line  between  the  States 
of  Alabama  and  Florida. 

The  flagstaff  of  Fort  M'Rae  soon  became  visible,  and  in 
fainter  outline  beyond  it  that  of  Fort  Pickens  and  the  hulls 
of  the  fleet,  in  which  one  can  make  out  three  war  steamers, 
a  frigate,  and  a  sloop -of- war,  and  then  the  sharp-set  canvas 
of  a  schooner,  the  police  craft  of  this^  beat,  bearing  down 
upon  us.  The  skipper,  with  some  uneasiness,  announces 
the  small  schooner  that  is  sailing  in  the  wind's  eye  as  the 
"  Oriental,"  and  confesses  to  have  already  been  challenged 
and  warned  off  by  her  sentinel  master.  We  promised  him 
immunity  for  the  past  and  safety  for  the  future,  and,  easing 
off  the  main  sheet,  he  lays  the  Diana  on  her  course  for  the 
fleet. 

Fort  M'Rae,  one  of  the  obsolete  school  of  fortresses, 
rounds  up  our  left.  Beyond  it,  on  the  shore,  is  Barrancas, 
a  square-faced  work,  half  a  mile  further  up  the  channel, 


104  THE    CIVIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA. 

and  more  immediately  facing  For.t  Pickens.  A  thick  wood 
crowns  the  low  shore  which  treads  away  to  the  eastward, 
but  amid  the  sand  the  glass  can  trace  the  outlines  of  the 
batteries.  Pretty-looking  detached  houses  line  the  beach  ; 
some  loftier  edifices  gather  close  up  to  the  shelter  of  a  tall 
chimney  which  is  vomiting  out  clouds  of  smoke,  and  a  few 
masts  and  spars  checker  the  white  fronts  of  the  large  build 
ings  and  sheds,  which,  with  a  big  shears,  indicate  the  posi 
tion  of  the  Navy  Yard  of  Warrington,  commonly  called  that 
of  Pensacola,  although  the  place  of  that  name  lies  several 
miles  higher  up  the  creek.  Fort  M'Rae  seems  to  have  sunk 
at  the  foundations  ;  the  crowns  of  many  of  the  casemates 
are  cracked,  and  the  water-face  is  poor-looking.  Fort  Pick- 
ens,  on  the  contrary,  is  a  solid,  substantial-looking  work, 
and  reminds  one  something  of  Fort  Paul  at  Sevastopol,  as 
seen  from  the  sea,  except  that  it  has  only  one  tier  of  case 
mates,  and  is  not  so  high. 

As  the  Oriental  approaches,  the  Diana  throws  her  fore 
sail  aback,  and  the  pretty  little  craft,  with  a  full-sized  United 
States  ensign  flying,  and  the  muzzle  of  a  brass  howitzer 
peeping  over  her  forecastle,  ranges  up  luff,  and  taking  an 
easy  sweep  lies  alongside  us.  A  boat  is  lowered  from  her 
and  is  soon  alongside,  steered  by  an  officer ;  her  crew  are 
armed  to  the  teeth  with  pistols  and  cutlasses.  "  Ah,  I  think 
I  have  seen  you  before.  What  schooner  is  this  ?  "  "  The 
Diana,  from  Mobile."  The  officer  steps  on  deck,  and  an 
nounces  himself  as  Mr.  Brown,  Master  in  the  United  States 
Navy,  in  charge  of  the  boarding  vessel  Oriental.  The  crew 
secure  their  boat  and  step  up  after  him.  The  skipper,  look 
ing  very  sulky,  hands  his  papers  to  the  officer.  "  Now,  sir, 
make  sail,  and  lie  to  under  the  quarter  of  that  steamer,  the 
guardship  Powhatan." 

Mr.  Brown  was  exceedingly  courteous  when  he  heard 
who  the  party  were.*  The  Mobilians,  however,  looked  as 
black  as  thunder ;  nor  where  they  at  all  better  pleased  when 
they  heard  the  skipper  ask  if  he  did  not  know  there  was  a 
strict  blockade  of  the  port.  The  Powhattan  [is  a  paddle 
steamer  of  2,200  tuns  and  10  guns,  and  is  known  to  our 
service  as  the  flag-ship  of  Commodore  Tatnall,  in  Chinese 
waters,  when  that  gallant  veteran  gave  us  timely  and  kindly 
proof  of  the  truth  of  his  well-known  expression,  *'  Blood  is 
thicker  than  water."  Upon  her  spar-deck  there  is  a  stout, 
healthy-looking  crew,  which  seems  quite  able  to  attend  to 
her  armament  of  ten  heavy  10-inch  Dahlgren  columbiads, 


THE    CIVIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA.  105 

and  the  formidable  1 1  -inches  of  the  same  family  on  the  fore 
castle.  Her  commander,  Captain  Porter,  though  only  a  lieu 
tenant,  commanding,  has  seen  an  age  of  active  service,  both  in 
the  navy  and  in  the  merchant  steam  marine  service,  to  which 
he  was  detailed  for  six  or  seven  years  after  the  discovery  of 
California.  The  party  were  ushered  into  the  cabin,  and 
Captain  Porter  received  them  with  perfect  courtesy,  heard 
our  names  and  object,  and  then  entered  into  general  con 
versation,  in  which  the  Mobilians,  thawed  by  his  sailorly 
frankness,  gradually  joined,  as  well  as  they  could.  Over 
and  over  again  I  must  acknowledge  the  exceeding  politeness 
and  civility  with  which  your  correspondent  has  been  received 
by  the  authorities  on  both  sides  in  this  unhappy  war. 

Though  but  little  beyond  the  age  of  forty,  Captain  Por 
ter  has  been  long  enough  in  the  navy  to  have  imbibed  some 
of  those  prejudices  which  by  the  profane  are  stigmatized  as 
fogyisms.  Until  the  day  previous  he  had,  he  told  me,  felt 
disposed  to  condemn  rifled  cannon  of  a  small  calibre  as 
"  gimcracks,"  but  had  been  rapidly  converted  to  the  "  Arm 
strong  faith  "  by  the  following  experiment :  He  was  making 
target-practice  with  his  heavy  gun  at  a  distance  of  some 
2,600  yards.  At  anything  like  a  moderate  elevation  the 
experiment  was  unsatisfactory  ;  and,  while  his  gunners  were 
essaying  to  harmonize  cause  and  effect,  the  charge  and  the 
elevation,  he  bethought  him  of  a  little  rifled  brass  plaything 
which  Captain  Dahlgren  had  sent  on  board  a  day  or  two 
before  his  departure.  To  his  astonishment  the  ball,  after 
careering  until  he  thought  "  it  would  never  stop  going," 
struck  the  water  1,000  yards  beyond  the  target,  and  estab 
lished  a  reputation  he  had  never  believed  possible  for  a  how 
itzer  of  6lb.  calibre  carrying  a  12lb.  bolt.  He  observed  that 
the  ancient  walls  of  Fort  M'Rae  would  not  resist  this  new 
missile  for  half  an  hour. 

If  it  comes  to  fighting,  you  will  hear  more  of  the  Pow- 
hatan  and  Captain  Porter.  He  has  been  repeatedly  in  the 
harbor  and  along  the  enemy's  works  at  night  in  his  boat, 
and  knows  their  position  thoroughly;  and  he  showed  me  on 
his  chart  the  various  spots  marked  off  whence  he  can  sweep 
their  works  and  do  them  immense  mischief.  "  The  Pow- 
hatan  is  old,  and  if  she  sinks  I  can't  help  it."  She  is  all 
ready  for  action ;  boarding-nettings  triced  up,  fieldpieces 
and  howitzers  prepared  against  night  boarding,  and  the 
whole  of  her  bows  padded  internally,  with  dead  wood  and 
sails,  so  as  to  prevent  her  main  deck  being  raked  as  she 


106  THE    CIVIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA. 

stands  stern  on  toward  the  forts.  -Her  crew  are  as  fine  a 
set  of  men  as  I  have  seen- of  late  days  on  board  a  man-of- 
war.  They  are  healthy,  well  fed,  regularly  paid,  and  can  be 
relied  on  to  do  their  duty  to  a  man.  As  far  as  I  could  judge, 
the  impression  of  the  officers  was  that  General  Bragg  would 
not  to  expose  himself  to  the  heavy  chastisement  which,  in 
their  belief,  awaits  him,  if  he  is  rash  enough  to  open  fire 
up'on  Fort  Pickens.  As  Captain  Porter  is  not  the  senior 
officer  of  the  fleet,  he  signaled  to  the  flag-ship,  and  was 
desired  to  send  us  on  board. 

One  more  prize  has  been  made  this  morning  —  a  little 
schooner  with  a  crew  of  Italians  and  laden  with  vegetables. 
This  master,  a  Roman  of  Civita  Vecchia,  pretends  to  be  in 
great  trouble,  in  order  to  squeeze  a  good  price  out  of  the 
captain  for  his  "  tutti  fruti  e  cosi  diversi."  The  officers  as 
sured  me  that  all  the  statements  made  by  the  coasting 
skippers,  when  they  return  to  port  from  tb,e  squadron,  are  lies 
from  beginning  to  end. 

A  ten-oared  barge  carried  the  party  to  the  United  States 
frigate  Sabine,  on  board  of  which  Flag-Captain  Adams 
hoists  his  pennant.  On  our  way  we  had  a  fair  view  of  the 
Brooklyn,  whose  armament  of  twenty  two  heavy  guns  is  said 
to  be  the  most  formidable  battery  in  the  American  navy. 
Her  anti-type,  the  Sabine,  an  old-fashioned  fifty-gun  frigate, 
as  rare  an  object  upon  modern  seas  as  an  old  post-coach  is 
upon  modern  roads,  is  reached  at  last.  As  one  treads  her 
decks,  the  eyes,  accusomed  for  so  many  weeks  to  the  out 
landish  uniforms  of  brave  but  undisciplined  Southern  Vol 
unteers,  feel  en  pays  de  connaissance,  when  they  rest  upon 
the  solid  mass  of  three  hundred  or  four  hundred  quid-roll 
ing,  sunburnt,  and  resolute-looking  blue-shirted  tars,  to 
whom  a  three  years'  cruise  has  imparted  a  family  aspect, 
which  makes  them  almost  as  hard  to  distinguish  apart  as  so 
many  Chinamen. 

A  believer  in  the  serpent-symbol  might  feel  almost  tempt 
ed  to  regard  the  log  of  the  Sabine  as  comprising  the  Alpha 
and  the  Omega  of,  at  least,  the  last  half  century  of  the 
American  Republic.  Her  keel  was  laid  shortly  after  our 
last  war  with  Brother  Jonathan,  and  so  long  as  the  Temple 
of  Janus  remained  closed  —  her  size  having  rendered  her 
unfit  to  participate  in  what  is  called  the  Mexican  war  —  she 
remained  in  the  shiphouse  of  the  Navy  Yard  which  had 
witnessed  her  baptism..  In  the  year  1858  she  was  summon 
ed  from  her  retirement  to  officiate  as  flagship  of  the  "  Para- 


THE    CIVIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA.  107 

guay  expedition,"  and  after  having  conveyed  the  American 
Commissioner  to  Montevideo,  whence  he  proceeded  with  a 
flotilla  of  steamers  and  sloops-of-war  up  to  Corrientes,  and 
thence  in  the  temporary  flagship,  the  steamer  Fulton,  to 
Assumpcion,  she  brought  him  back  to  New  York  in  May, 
1859,  and  was  then  dispatched  to  complete  her  cruise  as  part 
of  the  Home  Squadron  in  the  Caribbean  Sea  and  Gulf  of 
Mexico.  During  the  concluding  months  of  her  cruise  the 
political  complications  of  North  and  South  burst  into  the 
present  rupture,  and  the  day  before  our  visit  one  of  her  lieu 
tenants,  a  North  Carolinian,  had  left  her  to  espouse,  as  nearly 
all  the  Southern  officers  of  both  army  and  navy  have  done, 
the  cause  of  his  native  State.  Captain  Adams  is  in  a  still 
more  painful  predicament.  During  his  eventful  voyage, 
which  commenced  a  six  days'  experience  in  the  terrible 
Bermuda  cyclone  of  November,  1858,  he  had  been  a  stranger 
to  the  bitter  sectional  animosities  engendered  by  the  last 
election ;  and  had  recently  joined  the  blockade  of  this  port, 
where  he  finds  a  son  enlisted  in  the  ranks  of  the  C.  S.  A., 
and  learns  that  two  others  from  part  of  the  Virginia  divisions 
of  Mr.  Jefferson  Davis's  forces.  Born  in  Pennsylvania,  he 
married  in  Louisiana,  where  he  has  a  plantation  and  the  re 
mainder  of  his  family,  and  he  smiles  grimly  as  one  of  our 
companions  brings  him  the  playful  message  from  his  daugh 
ter,  who  has  been  elected  vivandiere  of  a  New  Orleans 
regiment,  "that  she  trusts  he  may  be  starved  while  blockad 
ing  the  South,  and  that  she  intends  to  push  on  to  Washing 
ton  and  get  a  lock  of  Old  Abe's  hair  " —  a  Sioux  lady  would 
have  said  his  scalp. 

The  veteran  sailor's  sad  story  demands  deep  sympathy.  I, 
however,  cannot  help  enjoying  at  least  the  variety  of  hear 
ing  a  little  of  the  a/tera  pars.  It  is  now  nearly  six  weeks 
since  I  entered  "  Dixie's  Land,"  during  which  period  I  must 
confess  I  have  had  a  sufficiency  of  the  music  and  drums,  the 
cavaliering  and  the  roystering  of  the  Southern  gallants.  As 
an  impartial  observer.  I  may  say  I  find  less  bitterness  and 
denunciation,  but  quite  as  dogged  a  resolution  upon  the 
Roundhead  side.  Some  experience,  or  at  least  observation 
of  the  gunpowder  argument,  has  taught  us  that  attack  is  al 
ways  a  more  grateful  office  than  defence,  and,  if  we  are  to 
judge  of  the  sturdy  resolution  of  the*  inmates  of  Fort 
Pickens  by  the  looks  of  the  officers  and  crews  of  the  fleet, 
Fort  Pickens  will  fall  no  easy  prize,  if  at  all. 

After  some    conversation    with    Captain  Adams,  and  the 


108  THE    CIVIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA. 

ready  hospitality  of  his  cabin,  he  said  finally  he  would  take 
on  himself  to  permit  me  and  the  party  to  land  at  the  Navy 
Yard  and  to  visit  the  enemy's  quarters,  relying  on  my 
character  as  a  neutral  and  a  subject  of  Great  Britain  that  no 
improper  advantage  would  be  taken  of  the  permission.  In 
giving  that  leave  he  was,  he  said,  well  aware  that  he  was 
laying  himself  open  to  attack,  but  he  acted  on  his  own  judg 
ment  and  responsibility.  We  must,  however,  hoist  a  flag  of 
truce,  as  he  had  been  informed  by  General  Bragg  that  he 
considered  the  intimation  he  had  received  from  the  fleet  of 
the  blockade  of  the  port  was  a  declaration  of  war,  and  that 
he  would  fire  on  any  vessel  from  the  fleet  which  approached 
his  command.  I  bade  good-by  to  Captain  Adams  with 
sincere  regret,  and  if  —  but  I  may  not  utter  the  wish  here. 
Our  barge  was  waiting  to  take  us  to  the  Oriental,  in  which 
we  sailed  pleasantly  away  down  to  the  Powhatan  to  inform 
Captain  Porter  I  had  received  premission  to  go  on  shore. 
Another  officer  was  in  his  cabin  when  I  entered  —  Captain 
Poore,  of  the  Brooklyn  —  and  he  seemed  a  little  surprised 
when  he  heard  that  Captain  Adams  had  given  leave  to  all  to 
go  on  shore.  "  What,  all  these  editors  of  Southern  news 
papers  who  are  with  you,  Sir  ?"  I  assured  him  they  were 
nothing  of  the  kind,  and  after  a  few  kind  words  I  made  my 
adieu,  and  went  on  board  the  Diana  with  my  companions. 

Hoisting  one  of  our  two  table-cloths  to  the  masthead  as  a 
flag  of  truce,  we  dropped  slowly  with  the  tide  through  the 
channel  that  runs  parallel  to  one  face  of  Fort  Pickens.  The 
wind  favored  us  but  little,  and  the  falling  breeze  enabled  all 
OH  board  to  inspect  deliberately  the  seemingly  artistic  pre 
parations  for  the  threatened  attack  which  frowns  and  bristles 
from  three  miles  of  forts  and  batteries  arrayed  around  the 
slight  indenture  opposite.  Heavy  sand-bag  traverses  protect 
the  corners  of  the  parapet,  and  seem  solid  enough  to  defy 
the  heavy  batteries  ensconced  in  earthworks  around  the 
Lighthouse,  which  to  an  outside  glance  seems  the  most  for 
midable  point  of  an  attack,  directed  as  it  is  against  the 
weaker  flank  of  the  fort  at  its  most  vulnerable  angle. 

A  few  soldiers  and  officers  upon  the  rampart  appeared  to 
be  inhaling  the  freshening  breeze  which  arose  to  waft  the 
schooner  across  the  channel,  and  enable  her  to  coast  the 
mainshore,  so  that  *all  could  take  note  of  the  necklace  of 
bastions,  earthworks,  and  columbiads  with  which  General 
Bragg  hopes  to  throttle  his  adversary.  We  passed  by  Bar^ 
rancas,  the  nearest  point  of  attack  (a  mile  and  a  quarter), 


THE    CIVIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA.  109 

the  Commander-in-Chief's  head-quarters,  the  barracks,  and 
the  hospital  successively,  and  as  the  vessel  approached  the 
landing-pier  of  the  Navy  Yard  one  could  hear  the  bustle  of 
the  military  and  the  hammers  of  the  artificers,  and  dascry 
the  crimson  and  blue  trappings  of  Zouaves,  recalling  Crimean 
reminiscences.  A  train  of  heavy  tumbrils,  drawn  by  three 
or  four  pairs  of  mules,  was  the  first  indication  of  a  transport 
system  in  the  army  of  the  Confederate  States,  and  the  high 
bred  chargers  mounted  by  the  escorts  of  these  ammunition 
wagons  corroborated  the  accounts  of  the  wealth  and  breed 
ing  of  its  volunteer  cavalry.  The  Diana  now  skirted  the 
Navy  Yard,  the  neat  dwellings  of  which,  and  the  profusion 
of  orange  and  fig  groves  in  which  they  are  embosomed,  have 
an  aspect  of  tropical  shade  and  repose,  much  at  variance 
with  the  stern  preparations  before  us.  Our  skipper  let  go  his 
anchor  at  a  respectful  distance  from  the  quay,  evincing  a  re 
gard  for  martial  law  that  contrasted  strangely  with  the  im 
patience  of  control  elsewhere  manifested  throughout  this 
land,  and  almost  inspiring  the  belief  that  no  other  rule  can 
ever  restore  the  lost  bump  of  veneration  to  American  crani- 
ology. 

While  the  master  of  the  Diana  was  skulling  his  leaky  punt 
ashore  to  convey  my  letters  of  introduction  to  the  Command 
er-in-chief,  I  had  leisure  to  survey  the  long,  narrow,  low 
sand  belt  of  the  island  opposite,  which  loses  itself  in  the 
distance,  and  disappears  in  the  ocean  forty-seven  miles  from 
Fort  Pickens.  It  is  so  nearly  level  with  the  sea  that  I 
could  make  out  the  main-yards  of  the  Sabine  and  the 
Brooklyn,  anchored  outside  the  island  within  range  of  the 
Navy  Yard,  which  is  destined  to  receive  immediate  atten 
tion  whenever  the  attack  shall  begin.  Pursuing  my  reflec 
tions  upon  the  morale  of  the  upper  and  nether  millstones 
between  which  the  Diana  is  moored,  I  am  sadly  puzzled  by 
the  anomalous  ethics  or  metaphysics  of  this  singular  war, 
the  preparations  for  which  vary  so  essentially  —  it  were  sin 
to  say  ludicrously  —  from  all  ancient  and  modern  belligerent 
usages.  Here  we  have  an  important  fortress,  threatened 
with  siege  for  the  last  sixty  days,  suffering  the  assailants  of 
the  flag  it  defends  to  amass  battery  upon  battery,  and  string 
the  whole  coast  of  low  hills  opposite  with  every  variety  of 
apparatus  for  its  own  devastation,  without  throwing  a  timely 
shell  to  prevent  their  establishment. 

War  has  been  virtually  declared,  since  letters  of  marque 
and  a  corresponding  blockade  admit  of  no  other  interpreta- 
10 


110  THE    CIVIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA. 

tion,  and  yet  but  last  week  two  Mobile  steamers,  laden  with 
£50,000  worth  of  provisions  for  the  beleaguering  camp, 
were  stopped  by  the  blockading  fleet,  and,  though  not  pre- 
mitted  to  enter  this  harbor,  were  allowed  to  return  to  Mobile 
untouched,  the  commander  thinking  it  quite  punishment 
enough  for  the  Rebels  to  thus  compel  them  to  return  to 
Mobile,  and  carry  up  the  Alabama  River  to  Montgomery 
this  mass  of  eatables,  which  would  have  to  be  dispatched 
thence  by  rail  to  this  place !  Such  practical  jokes  lend  a 
tinge  of  innocence  to  the  premonitories  of  this  strife  which 
will  hardly  survive  the  first  bloodshed. 

The  skipper  returned  from  shore  with  an  orderly,  who 
brought  the  needful  permission  to  haul  the  Diana  alongside 
the  wharf,  where  I  landed,  and  was  conducted  by  an  aide  of 
the  Quartermaster-General  through  the  shady  streets  of  this 
graceful  little  village,  which  covers  an  inclosure  of  three 
hundred  acres,  and,  with  the  adjoining  forts,  cost  the  United 
States  over  £6,000,000  sterling,  which  may  have  something 
to  do  with  the  President's  determination  to  hold  a  property 
under  so  heavy  an  hypothecation.  Irish  landlords,  with  en 
cumbered  estates,  have  no  such  simple  mode  of  obtaining 
an  acquittal. 

The  Navy  Yard  is,  properly  speaking,  a  settlement  of 
exceedingly  neat  detached  houses,  with  gardens  in  front, 
porticoes,  pillars,  verandahs,  and  Venetian  blinds  to  aid  the 
dense  trees  in  keeping  off  the  scorching  rays  of  the  sun, 
which  is  intensely  powerful  in  the  summer,  and  is  now 
blazing  so  fiercely  as  to  force  one  to  admit  the  assertion  that 
the  average  temperature  is  as  high  as  that  of  Calcutta  to  be 
very  probable.  The  grass-plots  under  these  tree  are  covered 
with  neat  piles  of  cannon  balls,  mostly  of  small  size ;  two 
obsolete  mortars  —  one  dated  1776  —  are  placed  in  the  main 
Avenue.  Tents  are  pitched  under  the  trees,  and  the  houses 
are  all  occupied  by  officers,  who  are  chatting,  smoking,  and 
drinking  at  the  open  windows.  A  number  of  men  in  semi- 
military  dresses  of  various  sorts  and  side  arms  are  lounging 
about  the  quays  and  the  lawns  before  the  houses.  Into  one 
of  these  I  am  escorted,  and  find  myself  at  a  very  pleasant 
mess,  of  whom  the  greater  number  are  officers  of  the  Zouave 
Corps,  from  New  Orleans  —  one,  a  Dane,  has  served  at 
Idstedt,  Kiel,  Frederichstadt ;  another  foreigner  has  seen 
service  in  South  America ;  another  has  fought  in  half  the 
insurrectionary  wars  in  Europe.  The  wine  is  abundant,  the 
fare  good,  the  laughter  and  talk  loud.  Mr.  Davis  has  been 


THE    CIVIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA.  Ill 

down  all  day  from  Montgomery,  accompanied  by  Mrs.  Davis, 
Mr.  Maloney,  and  Mr.  Wigfall,  and  they  all  think  his 
presence  means  immediate  action. 

The  only  ship  here  is  the  shell  of  the  old  Fulton,  which 
is  on  the  stocks,  but  the  works  of  the  Navy  Yard  are  useful 
in  casting  shot,  shell,  and  preparing  munitions  of  war.  An 
aide-de-camp  from  General  Bragg  entered  as  we  were  sit 
ting  at  table,  and  invited  me  to  attend  him  to  the  General's 
quarters.  The  road,  as  I  found,  was  very  long  and  very 
disagreeable,  owing  to  the  depth  of  the  sand,  into  which  the 
foot  sank  at  every  step  up  to  the  ankle.  Passing  the  front 
of  an  extended  row  of  the  clean,  airy,  pretty  villas  inside  the 
Navy  Yard,  we  passed  the  gate  on  exhibiting  our  passes, 
and  proceeded  by  the  sea  beach,  one  side  of  which  is  lined 
with  houses,  a  few  yards  from  the  surf.  These  houses  are  all 
occupied  by  troops,  or  are  used  as  bar-rooms  or  magazines. 
At  intervals  a  few  guns  have  been  placed  along  the  beach, 
covered  by  sand-bags,  parapets,  and  traverses.  As  we  toiled 
along  in  the  sand,  the  aide  hailed  a  cart,  pressed  it  into  the 
service,  and  we  continued  our  journey  less  painfully.  Sud 
denly  a  tall,  straight-backed  man  in  a  blue  frock-coat,  with 
a  star  on  the  epaulette  strap,  a  smart  kepi,  and  trowsers 
with  gold  stripe,  and  large  brass  spurs,  rode  past  on  a  high- 
stepping,  powerful  charger,  followed  by  an  orderly.  "  There 
is  General  Bragg,"  said  his  aide.  The  General  turned 
round,  reined  up,  and  I  was  presented  as  I  sat  in  my  state 
chariot.  The  commander  of  the  Confederated  States  Army 
at  Pensacola  is  about  forty-two  years  of  age,  of  a  spare 
and  powerful  frame ;  his  face  is  dark,  and  marked  with 
deep  lines,  his  mouth  large,  and  squarely  set  in  determined 
jaws,  and  his  eyes,  sagacious,  penetrating,  and  not  by 
any  means  unkindly,  look  out  at  you  from  beetle  brows 
which  run  straight  across  and  spring  into  a  thick  tuft  of 
black  hair,  which  is  thickest  over  the  nose,  where  naturally 
it  usually  leaves  an  intervening  space.  His  hair  is  dark, 
and  he  wears  such  regulation  whiskers  as  were  the  delight 
of  our  generals  a  few  years  ago.  His  manner  is  quick  and 
frank,  and  his  smile  is  very  pleasing  and  agreeable.  The 
General  would  not  hear  of  my  continuing  my  journey  to  his 
quarters  in  a  cart,  and  his  orderly  brought  up  an  ambu 
lance,  drawn  by  a  smart  pair  of  mules,  in  which  I  com 
pleted  it  satisfactorily. 

The  end  of  the  journey  through  the  sandy  plain  was  at 
hand,  for  in  an  inclosure  of  a  high  wall  there  stood  a  well- 


112  THE    CIVIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA. 

shaded  mansion,  amid  trees  of  live  oak  and  sycamore,  with 
sentries  at  the  gate  and  horses  held  by  orderlies  under  the 
portico.  General  Bragg  received  me  at  the  top  of  the  steps 
which  lead  to  the  verandah,  and,  after  a  few  earnest  and 
complimentary  words,  conducted  me  to  his  office,  where  he 
spoke  of  the  contest  in  which  he  was  to  play  so  important  a 
part  in  terms  of  unaffected  earnestness.  Why  else  had  he 
left  his  estates  ?  After  the  Mexican  war  he  had  retired  from 
the  United  States  Artillery ;  but  when  his  State  was  mena 
ced  he  was  obliged  to  defend  her.  He  was  satisfied  the 
North  meant  nothing  but  subjugation.  All  he  wanted  was 
peace.  Slavery  was  an  institution  for  which  he  was  not 
responsible  ;  but  his  property  was  guaranteed  to  him  by 
law,  and  it  consisted  of  slaves.  Why  did  the  enemy  take 
off  slaves  from  Tortugas  to  work  for  them  at  Pjckens  ? 
Because  whites  could  not  do  their  work.  It  was  quite  im 
possible  to  deny  his  earnestness,  sincerity,  and  zeal  as  he 
spoke,  and  one  could  only  wonder  at  the  difference  made  by 
the  "  stand  point "  from  which  the  question  is  reviewed. 
General  Bragg  finally,  before  we  supped,  took  down  his 
plans  and  showed  me  the  position  of  every  gun  in  his  works 
and  all  his  batteries.  He  showed  the  greatest  clearness  of 
unreserved  openness  in  his  communications,  and  was  anxi 
ous  to  point  out  that  he  had  much  greater  difficulties  to  con 
tend. with  than  General  Beauregard  had  at  Charleston.  The 
inside  of  Pickens  is  well  known  to  him,  as  he  was  stationed 
there  the  very  first  tour  of  duty  which  he  had  after  he  left 
West  Point.  It  was  late  at  night  when  I  returned  on  one 
of  the  General's  horses  toward  the  Navy  Yard.  The  order 
ly  who  accompanied  me  was,  he  said,  a  Mississippi  planter, 
but  he  had  left  his  wife  and  family  to  the  care  of  the  ne 
groes,  had  turned  up  all  his  cotton  land  and  replanted  it  with 
corn,  and  had  come  off  to  the  wars.  Once  only  were  we  chal 
lenged,  and  I  was  only  required  to  show  my  pass  as  I  was 
getting  on  board  the  schooner.  Before  I  left  General  Bragg 
he  was  good  enough  to  say  he  would  send  down  one  of  his 
aides-de-camp  and  horses  early  in  the  morning,  to  give  me 
a  look  at  the  works, 


THE    CIVIL    WAIl    IN    AMERICA.  113 


LETTER     XII. 

NEW  ORLEANS,  May  25,  1861. 

THERE  are  doubts  arising  in  my  mind  respecting  the 
number  of  armed  men  actually  in  the  field  in  the  South, 
and  the  amount  of  arms  in  the  possession  of  the  Federal 
forces.  The  constant  advertisements  and  appeals  for  "  a 
few  more  men  to  complete  "  such  and  such  companies  fur 
nish  some  sort  of  evidence  that  men  are  still  wanting.  But 
a  painful  and  startling  insight  into  the  manner  in  which 
44  Volunteers "  have  been  sometimes  obtained  has  been 
afforded  to  me  at  New  Orleans.  In  no  country  in  the 
world  have  outrages  on  British  subjects  been  so  frequent 
arid  so  wanton  as  in  the  States  of  America.  They  have 
been  frequent,  perhaps,  because  they  have  generally  been 
attended  with  impunity.  Englishmen,  however,  will  be 
still  a  little  surprised  to  hear  that  within  a  few  days  Brit 
ish  subjects  living  in  New  Orleans  have  been  seized,  knocked 
down,  carried  off  from  their  labor  at  the  wharf  and  the  work 
shop,  and  forced  by  violence  to  serve  in  the  "  Volunteer  " 
ranks !  These  cases  are  not  isolated.  They  are  not  in 
twos  and  threes,  but  in  tens  and  twenties  ;  they  have  not 
occurred  stealthily  or  in  by-ways,  they  have  taken  place  in 
open  day,  and  in  the  streets  of  New  Orleans.  These  men 
have  been  dragged  along  like  felons,  protesting  in  vain 
that  they  were  British  subjects.  Fortunately,  their  friends 
bethought  them  that  there  was  still  a  British  Consul  in  the 
city,  who  would  protect  his  countrymen  —  English,  Irish, 
or  Scotch.  Mr.  Mure,  when  he  heard  of  the  reports  and  of 
the  evidence,  made  energetic  representations  to  the  authori 
ties,  who,  after  some  evasion,  gave  orders  that  the  impressed 
"  Volunteers  "  should  be  discharged,  and  the  "  Tiger  Rifles" 
and  other  companies  were  deprived  of  the  services  of  thirty- 
five  British  subjects  whom  they  had  taken  from  their  usual 
avocations.  The  Mayor  promises  it  shall  not  occur  again. 
It  is  high  time  that  such  acts  should  be  put  a  stop  to,  and 
that  the  mob  of  New  Orleans  should  be  taught  to  pay  some 
regard  to  the  usuages  of  civilized  nations.  There  are  some 
strange  laws  here  and  elsewhere  in  reference  to  compulsory 
service  on  the  part  of  foreigners  which  it  would  be  well  to 
inquire  into,  and  Lord  John  Russell  may  be  able  to  deal 
with  them  at  a  favorable  opportunity.  As  to  any  liberty  of 
10* 


114  THE    CIVIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA. 

opinion  or  real  freedom  here,  the  boldest  Southerner  would 
not  dare  to  say  a  shadow  of  either  exists.  It  may  be  as  bad 
in  the  North,  for  all  I  know  ;  but  it  must  be  remembered 
that  in  all  my  communications  I  speak  of  things  as  they 
appear  to  me  to  be  in  the  place  where  I  am  at  the  time. 
The  most  cruel  and  atrocious  acts  are  perpetrated  by  the 
rabble  who  style  themselves  citizens.  The  national  failing 
of  curiosity  and  prying  into  other  people's  affairs  is  now 
rampant,  and  assumes  the  name  and  airs  of  patriotic  vigi 
lance.  Every  stranger  is  watched,  every  word  is  noted, 
espionage  commands  every  keyhole  and  every  letter-box  ; 
love  of  country  takes  to  eavesdropping,  and  freedom  shaves 
men's  heads,  and  packs  men  up  in -boxes  for  the  utterance 
of  "Abolition  sentiments."  In  this  city  there  is  a  terrible 
substratum  of  crime  and  vice,  violence,  misery,  and  murder, 
over  which  the  wheels  of  Cotton  King's  chariot  rumble  grat 
ingly,  and  on  which  rest  in  dangerous  security  the  feet  of 
his  throne.  There  are  numbers  of  negroes  who  are  sent 
out  on  the  streets  every  day  with  orders  not  to  return  with 
less  than  seventy-five  cents  —  anything  more  they  can  keep. 
But  if  they  do  not  gain  that  —  about  three  shillings  and 
six  pence  a  day  —  they  are  liable  to  punishment  ;  they  may 
be  put  into  jail  on  charges  of  laziness,  and  may  be  flogged 
ad  libitum,  and  are  sure  to  be  half  starved.  Can  anything, 
then,  be  more  suggestive  than  this  paragraph,  which  ap 
peared  in  last  night's  papers.  "  Only  three  coroners  in 
quests  were  held  yesterday  on  persons  found  drowned  in 
the  river,  names  unknown  !  "  The  italics  are  mine.  Over 
and  over  again  has  the  boast  been  repeated  to  me  that  on 
the  plantations  lock  and  key  are  unknown  or  unused  in  the 
planters'  houses.  But  in  the  cities  they  are  much  used, 
though  scarcely  trusted.  It  appears,  indeed,  that  unless  a 
slave  has  made  up  his  or  her  mind  to  incur  tha  dreadful 
penalties  of  flight,  there  would  be  no  inducement  to  com 
mit  theft,  for  money  or  jewels  would  be  useless  ;  search 
would  be  easy,  detection  nearly  certain.  That  all  the  slaves 
are  \ot  indifferent  to  the  issues  before  them,  is  certain.  At 
rtie  nouse  of  a  planter,  the  other  day,  one  of  them  asked 
my  friend,  "  Will  we  be  made  to  work,  massa,  when  ole 
English  come  ?  "  An  old  domestic  in  the  house  of  a  gen 
tleman  in  this  city  said,  "  There  are  few  whites  in  this 
place  who  ought  not  to  be  killed  for  their  cruelty  to  us." 
Another  said,  **  Oh,  just  wait  till  they  attack  Pickens  !  " 
These  little  hints  are  significant  enough  coupled  with  the 


THE    CIVIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA.  115 

notices  of  runaways,  and  the  lodgments  in  the  police  jails, 
to  show  that  all  is  not  quiet  below  the  surface.  The  hold 
ers,  however,  are  firm,  and  there  have  been  many  paragraphs 
stating  that  slaves  have  contributed  to  the  various  funds 
for  State  defence,  and  that  they  generally  show  the  very 
best  spirit. 

By  the  proclamation  of  Governor  Magoffin,  a  copy  of 
which  1  inclose,  you  will  see  that  the  Governor  of  the  Com 
monwealth  of  Kentucky  and  Commander-in-chief  of  all  her 
military  forces  on  land  or  water,  warns  all  States,  separated 
or  united,  especially  the  United  States  and  the  Confederate 
States,  that  he  will  fight  their  troops  if  they  attempt  to  enter 
his  Commonwealth.  -Thus  Kentucky  sets  up  for  herself, 
while  Virginia  is  on  the  eve  of  destruction,  and  an  actual 
invasion  has  taken  place  of  her  soil.  It  is  exceedingly  diffi 
cult  of  comprehension  that,  with  the  numerous  troops,  artil 
lery,  and  batteries,  which  the  Confederate  journals  asserted 
to  be  in  readiness  to  repel  attack,  an  invasion  which  took 
place  in  face  of  the  enemy,  and  was  effected  over  a  broad 
river,  with  shores  readily  defensible,  should  have  been  un- 
resisted.  Here  it  is  said  there  is  a  mighty  plan,  in  pursu 
ance  of  which  the  United  States  troops  are  to  be  allowed* to 
make  their  way  into  Virginia,  that  they  may  at  some  con 
venient  place  be  eaten  up  by  their  enemies  ;  and  if  we  hear 
that  the  Confederates  at  Harper's  Ferry  retain  their  posi 
tion  one  may  believe  some  such  plan  really  exists,  although 
it  is  rather  doubtful  strategy  to  permit  the  United  States 
forces  to  gain  possession  of  the  right  bank  of  the  Potomac. 
Should  the  position  at  Harper's  Ferry  be  really  occupied 
with  a  design  of  using  it  as  a  point  (Vappui  for  movements 
against  the  North,  and  any  large  number  of  troop's  be  with 
drawn  from  Annapolis,  Washington,  and  Baltimore,  so  as  to 
leave  those  places  comparatively  undefended,  an  irruption  in 
force  of  the  Confederates  on  the  right  flank  and  in  rear  of 
General  Scott's  army,  might  cause  most  serious  inconven 
ience  and  endanger  his  communications,  if  not  the  possession 
of  the  places  indicated. 

Looking  at  the  map,  it  is  easy  to  comprehend  that  a 
march  southwards  from  Alexandria  could  be  combined  with 
an  offensive  movement  by  the  forces  said  to  be  concentrated 
in  and  around  Fortress  Monroe,  so  as  to  place  Richmond 
itself  in  danger,  and,  if  any  such  measure  is  contemplatsd,  a 
battle  must  be  fought  in  that  vicinity,  or  the  prestige  of  the 
South  will  receive  very  great  damage.  It  is  impossible  for 


116  THE    CIVIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA. 

any  one  to  understand  the  movements  of  the  troops  on  both 
sides.  These  companies  are  scattered  broadcast  over  the 
enormous  expanse  of  the  States,  and,  where  concentrated 
in  any  considerable  numbsrs,  seem  to  have  had  their  po 
sition  determined  rather  by  local  circumstances  than  by 
considerations  connected  with  the  general  plan  of  a  large 
campaign. 

In  a  few  days  the  object  of  the  present  movement  will  be 
better  understood,  and  it  is  probable  that  your  correspond 
ent  at  New  York  will  send,  by  the  same  mail  which  carries 
this,  exceedingly  important  information,  to  which  I,  in  my 
present  position,  can  have  no  access.  The  influence  of  the 
blockade  will  be  severely  felt,  combined  with  the  strict  in 
terruption  of  all  intercourse  by  the  Mississippi.  Although 
the  South  boasts  of  its  resources  and  of  its  amazing  richness 
and  abundance  of  produce,  the  constant  advices  in  the  jour 
nals  to  increase  the  breadth  of  land  under  corn,  and  to  neg 
lect  the  cotton  crop  in  consideration  of  the  paramount  im 
portance  of  the  cause,  indicate  an  apprehension  of  a  scarcity 
of  food  if  the  struggle  be  prolonged. 

JJnder  any  circumstances,  the  patriotic  ladies  and  gentle 
men  who  are  so  anxious  for  the  war  must  make  up  their 
minds  to  suffer  a  little  in  the  flesh.  All  they  can  depend  on 
is  a  supply  of  home  luxuries  ;  Indian  corn  and  wheat,  the 
flesh  of  pigs,  eked  out  with  a  small  supply  of  beef  and  mut 
ton,  will  constitute  the  staple  of  their  food.  Butter  there 
will  be  none,  and  wine  will  speedily  rise  to  an  enormous 
price.  Norxwill  coffee  and  tea  be  had,  except  at  a  rate 
which  will  place  them  out  of  the  reach  of  the  mass  of  the 
community.  These  are  the  smallest  sacrifices  of  war.  The 
blockade  is  not  yet  enforced  here,  and  the  privateers  of  the 
port  are  extremely  active,  and  have  captured  vessels  with 
more  energy  than  wisdom. 

The  day  before  yesterday,  ships  belonging  to  the  United 
States  in  the  river  were  seized  by  the  Confederation  au 
thorities,  on  the  ground  that  war  Had  broken  out,  and  that 
the  time  of  grace  accorded  to  the  enemy's  traders  had  ex 
pired.  Great  was  the  rush  to  the  Consul's  office  to  transfer 
the  menaced  property  from  ownership  under  the  Stars  and 
Stripas  to  British  hands ;  but  Mr.  Mure  refused  to  recog 
nize  any  transactions  of  the  kind,  unless  sales  bonajide  had 
been  effected  before  the  action  of  the  Confederate  Marshals. 

At  Charleston  the  blockade  has  been  raised,  owing,  ap 
parently,  to  some  want  of  information  or  of  means  on  the 


THE    CIVIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA.  117 

part  of  the  United  States  Government,  and  considerable  in 
convenience  may  be  experienced  by  them  in  consequence. 
On  the  llth,  the  United  States  steam  frigate  Niagara  ap 
peared  outside  and  warned  off  several  British  ships,  and  on 
the  13th  she  was  visited  by  Mr.  Bunch,  our  Consul,  who 
was  positively  assured  by  the  officers  on  board  that  eight  or 
ten  vessels  would  be  down  to  join  in  enforcing  the  blockade. 
On  the  15th,  however,  the  Niagara  departed,  leaving  the 
port  open,  and  several  vessels  have  since  run  in  and  ob 
tained  fabulous  freights,  suggesting  to  the  minds  of  the 
owners  of  the  vessels  which  were  warned  off  the  propriety 
of  making  enormous  demands  for  compensation.  The 
Southerners  generally  believe  not  only  that  their  Confed 
eracy  will  be  acknowledged,  but  that  the  blockade  will  be 
disregarded  by  England.  Their  affection  for  her  is  propor- 
tionably  prodigious,  and  reminds  one  of  the  intensity  of  the 
gratitude  which  consists  in  lively  expectations  of  favors  to 
come. 

NEW  ORLEANS,  May  21,  1861. 

Yesterday  morning  early  I  left  Mobile  in  the  steamer 
Florida,  which  arrived  in  the  Lake  of  Pontchartrain  late  at 
night,  or  early  this  morning.  The  voyage,  if  it  can  be 
called  so,  would  have  offered,  in  less  exciting  times,  much 
that  was  interesting  —  certainly,  to  a  stranger,  a  good  deal 
that  was  novel  —  for  our  course  lay  inside  a  chain,  almost 
uninterrupted,  of  reefs,  covered  with  sand  and  pine  trees, 
exceedingly  narrow,  so  that  the  surf  and  waves  of  the  ocean 
beyond  could  be  seen  rolling  in  foam  through  the  foliage  of 
the  forest,  or  on  the  white  beach,  while  the  sea  lake  on 
which  our  steamer  was  speeding  lay  in  a  broad,  smooth 
sheet,  just  crisped  by  the  breeze,  between  the  outward  bar 
rier  and  the  wooded  shores  of  the  mainland.  Innumerable 
creeks,  or  "  bayous,"  as  they  are  called,  pierce  the  gloom  of 
these  endless  pines.  Now  and  then  a  sail  could  be  made 
out,  stealing  through  the  mazes  of  the  marshy  waters.  If 
the  mariner  knows  his  course,  he  may  find  deep  water  in 
most  of  the  channels  from  the  outer  sea  into  these  inner 
waters,  on  which  the  people  of  the  South  will  greatly  de 
pend  for  any  coasting  trade,  and  supplies  coastwise,  they 
may  require,  as  well  as  for  the  safe  retreat  of  their  priva 
teers.-  A  few  miles  from  Mobile,  the  steamer  turning  out 
of  the  bay,  entered  upon  the  series  of  these  lakes  through  a 
narrow  channel  called  Grant's  Pass,  which  some  enterprising 


118  THE    CIVIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA. 

person,  not  improbably  of  Scottish  extraction,  constructed 
for  his  own  behoof  by  an  ingenious  watercut,  and  for  the 
use  of  which,  and  of  a  little  iron  light-house  that  he  has 
built  close  at  hand,  on  the  model  of  a  pepper-castor,  he 
charges  toll  on  passing  vessels.  This  island  is  scarcely 
three  feet  above  the  water  ;  it  is  not  over  twenty  yards 
broad  and  one  hundred  and  fifty  yards  long.  A  number  of 
men  were,  however,  busily  engaged  in  throwing  up  the 
sand,  and  arms  gleamed  amid  some  tents  pitched  around  the 
solitary  wooden  shed  in  the  centre.  A  schooner  lay  at  the 
wharf,  laden  with  two  guns  and  sand-bags,  and  as  we  passed 
through  the  narrow  channel  several  men  in  military  uni 
form,  who  were  on  board,  took  their  places  in  a  boat  which 
pushed  off  for  them,  and  were  conveyed  to  their  tiny  sta 
tion,  of  which  one  shell  would  make  a  dust-heap.  The  Mo- 
bilians  are  fortifying  themselves  as  best  they  can,  and  seem, 
not  unadvisedly,  jealous  of  gunboats  and  small  war  steam 
ers.  On  more  than  one  outlying  sand- bank  toward  New 
Orleans  are  they  to  be  seen  at  work  on  other  batteries,  and 
they  are  busied  in  repairing,  as  well  as  they  can,  old  Spanish 
and  new  United  States  works  which  had  been  abandoned, 
or  which  were  never  completed.  The  news  has  just  been 
reported,  indeed,  that  the  batteries  they  were  preparing  on 
Ship  Island  have  been  destroyed  and  burnt  by  a  vessel  of 
war  of  the  United  States.  For  the  whole  day  we  saw  only 
a  few  coasting  craft  and  the  return  steamers  from  New  Or 
leans  ;  but  in  the  evening  a  large  schooner,  which  sailed  like 
a  witch  and  was  crammed  with  men,  challenged  my  atten 
tion,  and  on  looking  at  her  through  the  glass  I  could  make 
out  reasons  enough  for  desiring  to  avoid  her  if  one  was  a 
quiet,  short-handed,  well-filled  old  merchantman.  There 
could  be  no  mistake  about  certain  black  objects  on  the 
deck.  She  lay  as  low  as  a  yacht,  and  there  were  some  fifty 
or  sixty  men  in  the  waist  and  forecastle.  On  approaching 
New  Orleans,  there  are  some  settlements  rather  than  cities, 
although  they  are  called  by  the  latter  title,  visible  on  the 
right  hand,  embowered  in  woods  and  stretching  along  the 
beach.  Such  are  the  "  Mississippi  City,"  Pass  Cagoula, 
and  Pass  Christian,  &c.  —  all  resorts  of  the  inhabitants  of 
New  Orleans  during  the  summer  heats  and  the  epidemics 
which  play  such  havoc  -with  life  from  time  to  time.  Seen 
from  sea,  these  huge  hamlets  look  very  picturesque.-  The 
detached  villas,  of  every  variety  of  architecture,  are  painted 
brightly  and  stand  in  gardens  in  the  midst  of  magnolias  and 


THE    CIVIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA.  119 

rhododendrons.  Very  long  and  slender  piers  lead  far  into 
the  sea  before  the  very  door,  and  at  the  extremity  of  each 
there  is  a  bathing  box  for  the  inmates.  The  general  effect 
of  one  of  these  settlements,  with  its  light  domes  and  spires, 
long  lines  of  whitewashed  railings,  and  houses  of  every  hue 
set  in  the  dark  green  of  the  pines,  is  very  pretty.  The 
steamer  touched  at  two  of  them.  There  was  a  motley  group 
of  colored  people  on  the  jetty,  a  few  whites,  of  whom  the 
males  were  nearly  all  in  uniform  ;  a  few  bales  of  goods  were 
landed  or  put  on  board,  and  that  was  all  one  could  see  of 
the  life  of  that  place.  Our  passengers  never  ceased  talking 
politics  all  day,  except  when  they  were  eating  or  drinking, 
for  I  regret  to  say  they  can  continue  to  chew  and  to  spit 
while  they  are  engaged  in  political  discussion.  Some  were 
rucle  provincials  in  uniform.  One  was  an  acquaintance 
from  the  far  East,  who  had  been  a  lieutenant  en  board  of 
the  Minnesota,  and  had  resigned  his  commission  in  order 
to  take  service  under  the  Confederate  flag.  The  fiercest 
among  them  all  was  a  thin  little  lady,  who  uttered  certain 
energetic  aspirations  for  the  possession  of  portions  of  Mr. 
Lincoln's  person,  and  who  was  kind  enough  to  express  in 
tense  satisfaction  at  the  intelligence  that  there  was  small 
pox  among  the  garrison  at  Monroe.  In  the  evening  a  little 
difficulty  occurred  among  some  of  the  military  gentlemen, 
during  which  one  of  the  logicians  drew  a  revolver,  and  pre 
sented  it  at  the  head  of  the  gentleman  who  was  opposed  to 
his  peculiar  views,  but  I  am  happy  to  say  that  an  arrange 
ment,  to  which  I  was  an  unwilling  V  party,"  for  the  row 
took  place  within  a  yard  of  me,  was  entered  into  for  a  fight 
to  come  off  on  shore  in  two  days  after  they  landed,  which 
led  to  the  postponement  of  immediate  murder. 

The  entrance  to  Pontchartrain  Lake  is  infamous  for  the 
abundance  of  its  mosquitoes,  and  it  was  with  no  small  satis 
faction  that  we  experienced  a  small  tornado,  a  thunder 
storm,  and  a  breeze  of  wind  which  saved  us  from  their  fury. 
It  is  a  dismal  canal  through  a  swamp.  At  daylight  the  ves 
sel  lay  alongside  a  wharf  surrounded  by  small  boats  and 
bathing  stations.  A  railway-shed  receives  us  on  shore,  and 
a  train  is  soon  ready  to  start  for  the  city,  which  is  six  miles 
distant.  For  a  few  hundred  yards  the  line  passes  between 
wooden  houses,  used  as  restaurants,  or  "  restaurats,"  as 
they  are  called  hereaway,  kept  by  people  with  French 
names  and  using  the  French  tongue  ;  then  the  rail  plunges 
through  a  swamp,  dense  as  an  Indian  jungle,  and  with  the 


120  THE    CIVIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA. 

overflowings  of  the  Mississippi  creeping  in  feeble,  shallow 
currents  over  the  black  mud.  Presently  the  spires  of 
churches  are  seen  rising  above  the  underwood  and  rushes. 
Then  we  come  out  on  a  wide  marshy  plain,  in  which  flocks 
of  cattle  up  to  the  belly  in  mud  are  floundering  to  get  at  the 
rich  herbage  on  the  unbroken  surface.  Next  comes  a  wide 
spread  suburb  of  exceedingly  broad  lanes,  lined  with  small 
one-storied  houses.  The  inhabitants  are  pale,  lean,  and 
sickly,  and  there  is  about  the  men  a  certain  look,  almost  pe 
culiar  to  the  fishy-fleshy  populations  of  Levantine  towns, 
which  I  cannot  describe,  but  which  exists  all  along  the 
Mediterranean  seaboard,  and  crops  out  here  again.  The 
drive  through  badly-paved  streets  enables  us  to  see  that 
there  is  an  air  of  French  civilization  about  New  Orleans. 
The  streets  are  wisely  adapted  to  the  situation  ;  they  are 
not  so  wide  as  to  permit  the  sun  to  have  it  all  his  own  way 
from  rising  to  setting.  The  shops  are  "  magasins ;"  cafes 
abound.  The  colored  population  looks  well  dressed,  and  is 
going  to  mass  or  market  in  the  early  morning.  The  pave 
ments  are  crowded  with  men  in  uniform,  in  which  the  taste 
of  France  is  generally  followed.  The  carriage  stops  at 
last,  and  rest  comes  gratefully  after  the  stormy  night,  the 
mosquitoes,  "  the  noise  of  the  captains  "  (at  the  bar),  and 
the  shunting. 

MAY  22.  —  The  prevalence  of  the  war  spiriit  here  is  in 
everything  somewhat  exaggerated  by  the  fervor  of  Gallic 
origin,  and  the  violence  of  popular  opinion  and  the  tyranny 
of  the  mass  are  as  potent  as  in  any  place  in  the  South.  The 
great  house  of  Brown  Brothers,  of  Liverpool  and  New  York, 
has  closed  its  business  here  in  consequence  of  the  intimida 
tion  of  the  mob,  or,  as  the  phrase  is,  of  the  "  citizens,"  who 
were  "  excited  "  by  seeing  that  the  firm  had  subscribed  to 
the  New  York  fund,  on  its  sudden  resurrection  after  Fort 
Sumter  had  fallen.  Some  other  houses  are  about  to  pursue 
the  same  course  ;  all  large  business  transactions  are  over  for 
the  season,  and  the  migratory  population  which  comes  here 
to  trade  has  taken  wing  much  earlier  than  usual.  But  the 
streets  are  full  of  "  Turcos  "  and  "  Zouaves  "  and  "  Chas 
seurs  ;  "  the  tailors  are  busy  night  and  day  on  uniforms ; 
the  walls  are  covered  with  placards  for  recruits,  the  scam- 
stresses  are  sewing  flags,  the  ladies  are  carding  lint  and 
stitching  cartridge  bags.  The  newspapers  are  crowded  with 
advertisements  relating  to  the  formation  of  new  companies 


THE    CIVIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA.  121 

of  Volunteers  and  the  election  of  officers.  There  are  Pick 
wick  Rifles,  Lafayette,  Beauregard,  Irish,  German,  Scotch, 
Italian,  Spanish,  Crescent,  McMahon  —  innumerable  —  Rifle 
Volunteers  of  all  names  and  nationalities,  and  the  Meagher 
Rifles,  indignant  with  "  that  valiant  son  of  Mars  "  because 
he  has  drawn  his  sword  for  the  North,  have  re-baptized 
themselves,  and  are  going  to  seek  glory  under  a  more  aus 
picious  nomenclature.  About  New  Orleans  1  shall  have 
more  to  say  when  I  see  more  of  it.  At  present  it  looks 
very  like  an  outlying  suburb  of  Chalons  when  the  Grand 
Camp  is  at  its  highest  military  development,  although  the 
thermometer  is  rising  gradually,  and  obliges  one  to  know 
occasionally  that  it  can  be  95D  in  the  shade  already.  In  the 
course  of  my  journeying  southward  I  have  failed  to  find 
much  evidence  that  there  is  any  apprehension  on  the  part  of 
the  planters  of  a  servile  insurrection,  or  that  the  slaves  are 
taking  much  interest  in  the  coming  contest,  or  know  what  it 
is  about.  But  I  have  my  suspicions  that  all  is  not  right ; 
paragraphs  meet  the  eye,  and  odd  sentences  strike  the  ear, 
and  little  facts  here  and  there  come  to  the  knowledge  which 
arouse  curiosity  and  doubt.  There  is  one  stereotyped  sen 
tence  which  I  am  tired  of:  "  Our  negroes,  Sir,  are  the  hap 
piest,  the  most  contented,  and  the  best  off  of  any  people  in 
the  world." 

The  violence  and  reiterancy  of  this  formula  cause  one  to 
inquire  whether  anything  which  demands  such  insistance 
is  really  in  the  condition  predicated,  and,  for  myself,  I  al 
ways  say,  "  It  may  be  so,  but  as  yet  I  do  not  see  the  proof 
of  it.  The  negroes  do  not  look  to  be  what  you  say  they 
are."  For  the  present  that  is  enough  as  to  one's  own 
opinions.  Externally  the  paragraphs  which  attract  attention, 
and  the  acts  of  the  authorities,  are  inconsistent  with  the 
notion  that  the  negroes  are  all  very  good,  very  happy,  or  at 
all  contented,  not  to  speak  of  their  being  in  the  superlative 
condition  of  enjoyment ;  and,  as  I  only  see  them,  as  yet, 
in  the  most  superficial  way,  and  under  'the  most  favorable 
circumstances,  it  may  be  that  when  the  cotton-picking  sea 
son  is  at  its  height,  and  it  lasts  for  several  months,  when 
the  labor  is  continuous  from  sunrise  to  sunset,  there  is  less 
reason  to  accept  the  assertions  as  so  largely  and  generally 
true  of  the  vast  majority  of  the  slaves.  "  There  is  an  ex 
cellent  gentleman  over  there,"  said  a  friend  to  me,  "  who 
gives  his  overseers  a  premium  of  $10  on  the  birth  of  every 
child  on  his  plantation."  "  Why  so?"  "  Oh,  in  order  that 
11 


THE    CIVIL    WAK    IN    AMERICA. 

the  overseers  may  not  work  the  women  in  the  family-way 
overmuch."  There  is  little  use  in  this  part  of  the  world  in 
making  use  of  inferences.  But  where  overseers  do  not  get 
the  premium,  it  may  be  supposed  they  do  work  the  preg 
nant  women  too  much.  Here  are  two  paragraphs  which  do 
not  look  very  well  as  they  stand  : 

"Those  negroes  who  were  taken  with  a  sudden  leaving  on  Sunday 
night  last  will  save  the  country  the  expenses  of  their  burial  if  they 
keep  dark  from  these  parts.  They  and  other  of  the  '  breden  '  will  not 
be  permitted  to  express  themselves  quite  so  freely  in  regard  to  their 
braggadocio  designs  upon  virtue  in  the  absence  of  volunteers."  — 
[Wilmington  (Clintock  County,  Ohio.)  Watchman  (Republican). 

"  SERVED  HIM  RIGHT.  —  One  day  last  week  some  colored  individual, 
living  near  South  Plymouth,  made  a  threat  that,  in  case  a  civil  war 
should  occur,  *  he  would  be  one  to  ravish  the  wife  of  every  Democrat, 
and  to  help  murder  their  offspring  and  wash  his  hands  in  their  blood.' 
For  this  diabolical  assertion  he  was  hauled  up  before  a  committee  of 
white  citizens,  who  adjudged  him  forty  stripes  on  his  naked  back.  He 
was  accordingly  stripped,  and  the  lashes  were  laid  on  with  such  good 
will,  that  the  blood  flowed  at  the  end  of  the  castigation.  —  [Washing 
ton  (Fayette  County,  Ohio,)  Register  (Neutral). 

It  is  reported  that  the  patrols  are  strengthened,  and  I  could 
not  help  hearing  a  charming  young  lady  say  to  another,  the 
other  evening,  that  "  she  would  not  be  afraid  to  go  back  to  the 
plantation,  though  Mrs.  Brown  Jones  said  she  was  afraid  her 
negroes  were  after  mischief." 

There  is  a  great  scarcity  of  powder,  which  is  one  of  the 
reasons,  perhaps,  why  it  has  not  yet  been  expended  as 
largely  as  might  be  expected  from  the  tone  and  temper  on  both 
sides.  There  is  no  sulphur  in  the  States — nitre  and  char 
coal  abound.  The  sea  is  open  to  the  North.  There  is  no 
great  overplus  of  money  on  either  side.  In  Missouri,  the 
interest  on  the  State  debt  due  in  July  will  be  used  to  pro 
cure  arms  for  the  State  volunteers  to  carry  on  the  war.  The 
South  is  preparing  for  the  struggle  by  sowing  a  most  un 
usual  quantity  of  grain,  and  in  many  fields  corn  and  maize 
have  been  planted  instead  of  cotton.  "  Stay  laws,"  by 
which  all  inconveniences  arising  from  the  usual,  dull,  old- 
fashioned  relations  between  debtor  and  creditor  are  avoided 
(at  least  by  the  debtor),  have  been  adopted  in  most  of  the 
Seceding  States.  How  is  it  that  the  State  Legislatures 
seem  to  be  in  the  hands  of  the  debtors,  and  not  of  the 
creditors  ? 

There  are  some  who  cling  to  the  idea  that  there  will  be 
no  war,  after  all ;  but  no  one  believes  that  the  South  will 


THE    CIVIL    WAB.    IN    AMERICA.  123 

ever  go  back  of  its  own  free  will,  and  the  only  reason  that 
can  be  given  for  those  who  hope  rather  than  think  in  that 
way,  is  to  be  found  in  the  faith  that  the  North  will  accept 
some  mediation,  and  will  let  the  South  go  in  peace.  But 
could  there,  can  there  be  peace  ?  The  frontier  question, 
the  adjustment  of  various  claims,  the  demands  for  indem 
nity,  or  for  privileges  or  exemptions,  in  the  present  state  of 
feeling,  can  have  but  one  result.  The  task  of  mediation  is 
sure  to  be  as  thankless  as  abortive.  Assuredly  the  proffered 
service  of  England  would,  on  one  side  at  least,  be  received 
with  something  like  insult.  Nothing  but  adversity  can 
teach  these  people  its  own  most  useful  lessons.  Material 
prosperity  has  puffed  up  the  citizens  to  an  unwholesome 
state.  The  toils  and  sacrifices  of  the  Old  World  have  been 
taken  by  them  as  their  birthright,  and  they  have  accepted 
the  fruits  of  all  that  the  science,  genius,  suffering,  and  trials 
of  mankind  in  time  past  have  wrought  out,  perfected,  and 
won  as  their  own  peculiar  inheritance,  while  they  have  ig- 
norantly  rejected  the  advice  and  scorned  the  lessons  with 
which  these  were  accompanied. 

MAY  23.  —  The  Congress  at  Montgomery,  having  sat 
with  closed  doors  almost  since  it  met,  has  now  adjourned 
till  July  the  20th,  when  it  will  reassemble  at  Richmond,  in 
Virginia,  which  is  thus  designated,  for  the  time,  capital  of 
the  Confederate  States  of  America.  Richmond,  the  prin 
cipal  city  of  the  old  Dominion,  is  about  one  hundred 
miles  in  a  straight  line  south  by  west  of  Washington. 
The  rival  capitals  will  thus  be  in  very  close  proximity  by 
rail  and  by  steam,  by  land  and  by  water.  The  movement 
is  significant.  It  will  tend  to  hasten  a  collision  between 
the  forces  which  are  collected  on  the  opposite  sides  of  the 
Potomac.  Hitherto,  Mr.  Jefferson  Davis  has  not  evinced 
all  the  sagacity  and  energy,  in  a  military  sense,  which  he  is 
said  to  possess.  It  was  bad  strategy  to  menace  Washington 
before  he  could  act.  His  Secretary  of  War,  Mr.  Walker, 
many  weeks  ago,  In  a  public  speech,  announced  the  inten 
tion  of  marching  upon  the  capital.  If  it  was  meant  to  do 
so,  the  blow  should  have  been  struck  silently.  If  it  was 
not  intended  to  seize  upon  Washington,  the  threat  had  a 
very  disastrous  effect  on  the  South,  as  it  excited  the  North 
to  immediate  action,  and  caused  General  Scott  to  concen 
trate  his  troops  on  points  which  present  many  advantages 
in  the  face  of  any  operations  which  may  "be  considered 


124  THE    CIVIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA. 

necessary  along  the  lines  either  of  defence  or  attack.  The 
movement  against  the  Norfolk  Navy  Yard  strengthened 
Fortress  Monroe,  and  the  Potomac  and  Chesapeake  were 
secured  to  the  United  States.  The  fortified  ports  held  by 
the  Virginians  and  the  Confederate  States  troops,  are  not  of 
much  value  as  long  as  the  streams  are  commanded  by  the 
enemy's  steamers ;  and  General  Scott  has  shown  that  he 
has  not  outlived  either  his  reputation  or  his  vigor  by  the 
steps,  at  once  wise  and  rapid,  he  has  taken  to  curb  the  mal 
contents  in  Maryland,  and  to  open  his  communications 
through  the  City  of  Baltimore.  Although  immense  levies 
of  men  may  be  got  together  on  both  sides  for  purposes  of 
local  defence  or  for  State  operations,  it  seems  to  me  that  it 
will  be  very  difficult  to  move  these  masses  in  regular  armies. 
The  men  are  not  disposed  for  regular,  lengthened  service, 
and  there  is  an  utter  want  of  field  trains,  equipment,  and 
commissariat,  which  cannot  be  made  good  in  a  day,  a  week, 
or  a  month. 

The  bill  passed  by  the  Montgomery  Congress,  entitled 
"  An  act  to  raise  an  additional  military  force  to  serve  during 
the  war,"  is,  in  fact,  a  measure  to  put  into  the  hands  of  the 
Government  the  control  of  irregular  bodies  of  men,  and  to 
bind  them  to  regular  military  service.  With  all  their  zeal, 
the  people  of  the  South  will  not  enlist.  They  detest  the 
recruiting  sergeant,  and  Mr.  Davis  knows  enough  of  war  to 
feel  hesitation  in  trusting  himself  in  the  field  to  volunteers. 
The  bill  authorizes  Mr.  Davis  to  accept  volunteers,  who 
may  offer-  their  services,  without  regard  to  the  place  of  en 
listment,  "  to  serve  during  the  war,  unless  sooner  discharged." 
They  may  be  accepted  in  companies,  but  Mr.  Davis  is  to 
organize  them  into  squadrons,  battalions,  or  regiments,  and 
the  appointment  of  field  and  staff  officers  is  reserved  es 
pecially  to  him.  The  company  officers  are  to  be  elected  by 
the  men  of  the  company,  but  here  again  Mr.  Davis  reserves 
to  himself  the  right  of  veto,  and  will  only  commission  those 
officers  whose  election  he  approves.  '  ^ 

The  absence  of  cavalry  and  the  deficiency  of  artillery  may 
prevent  either  side  obtaining  any  decisive  results  in  one  en 
gagement,  but  no  doubt  there  will  be  great  loss  whenever 
these  large  masses  of  men  are  fairly  opposed  to  each  other 
in  the  field.  Of  the  character  of  the  Northern  regiments  I 
can  say  nothing  more  from  actual  observation,  nor  have  I 
yet  seen  in  any  place  such  a  considerable  number  of  the 
troops  of  the  Confederate  States  moving  together,  as  would 


THE    CIVIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA.  125 

justify  me  in  expressing  any  opinion  with  regard  to  their 
capacity  for  organized  movements  such  as  regular  troops  in 
Europe  are  expected  to  perform.  An  intelligent  and  trust 
worthy  observer,  taking  one  of  the  New  York  State  Militia 
regiment*  as  a  fair  specimen  of  the  battalions  which  will 
fight  for  the  United  States,  gives  an  account  of  them  which 
leads  me  to  the  -conclusion  that  such  regiments  are  -much 
superior  when  furnished  by  the  country  districts  to  those 
raised  in  the  towns  and  cities.  It  appears  in  this  case,  at 
least,  that  the  members  of  the  regular  militia  companies  in 
general  send  substitutes  to  the  ranks.  Ten  of  these  com 
panies  form  the  regiment,  and  in  nearly  every  instance  they 
have  been  doubled  in  strength  by  volunteers.  Their  drill 
is  exceedingly  incomplete,  and  in  forming  the  companies 
there  is  a  tendency  for  the  different  nationalities  to  keep 
themselves  together.  In  the  regiment  in  question,  the  rank 
and  file  often  consists  of  quarrymen,  mechanics,  and  canal 
boatmen,  mountaineers  from  the  Catskill,  bark  peelers  and 
timber  cutters  —  ungainly,  square-built,  powerful  fellows, 
with  a  Dutch  tenacity  of  purpose  crossed  with  an  English 
indifference  to  danger.  There  is  no  drunkenness  and  no 
desertion  among  them.  The  officers  are  almost  as  ignorant 
of  military  training  as  their  men.  The  Colonel,  for  instance, 
is  the  son  of  a  rich  man  in  his  district,  well  educated,  and  a 
man  of  travel.  Another  officer  is  a  sbipmaster.  A  third 
in  an  artist ;  others  are  merchants  and  lawyers,  and  they  are 
all  busy  studying  "  Hardee's  Tactics,"  the  best  book  for 
infantry  drill  in  the  United  States.  The  men  have  come 
out  to  fight  for  what  they  consider  the  cause  of  theo  cuntry, 
and  are  said  to  have  no  particular  hatred  of  the  South  or 
of  its  inhabitants,  though  they  think  they  are  "  a  darned 
deal  too  high  and  mighty,  and  require  to  be  wiped  down 
considerably."  They  have  no  notion  as  to  the  length  of 
time  for  which  their  services  will  be  required,  and  I  am 
assured  that  not  one  of  them  has  asked  what  his  pay  is 
to  be. 

Reverting  to  Montgomery,  one  may  say  without  offence, 
that  its  claims  to  be  the  capital  of  a  Republic  which  asserts 
that  it  is  the  richest,  and  believes  that  it  will  be  the  strongest 
in  the  world,  are  not  by  any  means  evident  to  a  stranger. 
Its  central  position,  which  has  reference  rather  to  a  map 
than  to  the  hard  face  of  matter,  procured  for  it  a  distinction 
to  which  it  had  no  other  claim.  The  accommodations  which 
suited  the  modest  wants  of  a  State  Legislature  vanished  or 
11* 


126  THE    CIVIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA. 

were  transmuted  into  barbarous  inconveniences  by  the  pres 
sure  of  a  central   government,  with   its  offices,  its  depart 
ments,    and    the    vast    crowd    of  applicants    which    flocked 
thither  to  .pick  up  such  crumbs  of  comfort  as  could  be  spared 
from  the  Executive  table.     Never  shall  I  forget  the  dismay 
of  myself,  and  of  the  friends  who  were  travelling  with  me, 
on  our  arrival  at  the  Exchange  Hotel,  under  circumstances 
with  some  of  which  you  are  already  acquainted.     With  us 
were  men  of  high  position,  Members  of  Congress,  Senators, 
ex-Governors,  and  General  Beauregard  himself.     But  to  no 
one   was   greater   accommodation    extended   than   could   be 
furnished  by  a  room  held,  under  a  sort  of  ryot-warree  ten 
ure,  in  common  with  a  community  of  strangers.     My  room 
was  shown  to  me.      It  contained  four  large  fourpost  beds,  a 
ricketty  table,  and  some  chairs  of  infirm  purpose  and  funda 
mental    unsoundness.     The    floor    was    carpetless,    covered 
with   litter   of  paper  and   ends  of  cigars,  and   stained  with 
tobacco  juice.     The   broken   glass  of  the  window  afforded 
no  ungrateful  means  of  ventilation.      One  gentleman  sat  in 
his    shirt   sleeves   at  the  table    reading   the  account  of  the 
marshalling  of  the  Highlanders  at  Edinburgh  in  the  Abbots- 
ford  edition  of  Sir  Walter  Scott ;  another,   who  had  been 
wearied,  apparently,   by  writing  numerous   applications   to 
the    Government  for    some  military  post,    of  which   rough 
copies  lay  scattered  around,  came  in,  after  refreshing  himself 
at  the  bar,  and  occupied  one  of  the  beds,  which,  by-the-bye, 
were  ominously  provided  with  two  pillows  apiece.     Supper 
there  was  none  for  us  in  the  house,  but  a  search  in  an  out 
lying   street,    enabled    us   to   discover   a  restaurant,    where 
roasted  squirrels  and  baked  opossums  figured  as  luxuries  in 
the  bill  of  fare.      On  our  return  we  found  that  due  prepara 
tion  had   been   made   in  the  apartment   by  the  addition  of 
three  mattresses  on  the  floor.     The  beds  were  occupied  by 
unknown  statesmen  and  warriors,  and  we  all  slumbered  and 
snored  in  friendly  concert  till  morning.     Gentlemen  in  the 
South  complain  that  strangers  judge  of  them  by  their  hotels, 
but  it  is  a  very  natural  standard  for  strangers  to  adopt,  and 
in  respect  to  Montgomery  it  is  almost  the  only  one  that  a 
gentleman  can  conveniently  use  ;  for,  if  the  inhabitants  of 
this  city  and  its  vicinity  are  not  maligned,  there  is  an  absence 
of  the  hospitable  spirit  which  the  South  lays  claim  to  as  one 
of  its   animating   principles,  and  a  little  bird  whispered   to 
me  that  from   Mr.  Jefferson  Davis  down  to  the  least  distin 
guished  member  of  his  Government,   there  was  reason  to 


THE    CIVIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA.  127 

observe  that  the  usual  attentions  and  civilities  offered  by 
residents  to  illustrious  stragglers  had  been  u  conspicuous 
for  their  absence."  The  fact  is,  that  the  small  planters,  who 
constitute  the  majority  of  the  land-owners,  are  not  in  a 
position  to  act  the  Amphytrion,  and  that  the  inhabitants  of 
the  district  can  scarcely  aspire  to  be  considered  what  we 
would  call  gentry  in  England,  but  are  a  frugal,  simple,  hog 
and  hominy-living  people,  fond  of  hard  work  and,  occasion 
ally,  of  hard  drinking. 

NEW  ORLEANS,  May  24,  1861'. 

It  is  impossible  to  resist  the  conviction  that  the  Southern 
Confederacy  can  only  be  conquered  by  means  as  irresistible 
as  those  by  which  Poland  was  subjugated.     The  South  will 
fall,  if  at  all,  as  a  nation  prostrate  at  the  feet  of  a  victorious 
enemy.     There  is  no  doubt  of  the  unanimity  of  the  people. 
If  words  mean  anything,  they  are    animated  by   only  one 
sentiment,  and   they  will   resist  the  North  as  long  as  they 
can  command  a  man  or  a  dollar.     There  is  nothing  of  a  sec 
tional  character  'in  this  disposition  of  the  South.     In  every 
State  there  is  only  one  voice  audible.     Hereafter,  indeed, 
State  jealousies  may  work  their  own  way.     Whatever  may 
be  the  result,  unless  the  men  are  the  mei^st  braggarts  —  and 
they  do  not  look  like  it  —  they  will  fight  to  the  last  before 
they  give  in,  and  their  confidence  in  their  resources  is  only 
equalled  by  their  determination  to  test  them  to  the  utmost. 
There  is  a  noisy  vociferation  about  their  declarations  of  im 
plicit  trust  and,  reliance  oh  their  slaves,  which  makes  one 
think   they  do  "protest   too   much,"  and  it  remains  to  be 
seen  whether  the  slaves  really  will  remain  faithful  to  their 
masters  should  the  Abolition  army  ever  come  among  them 
as  an  armed  propaganda.      One  thing  is  obvious  here.     A 
large  number  of  iiva  who  might  be   usefully  employed  in 
the   ranks  are  idling  about  the  streets.     The  military   en 
thusiasm  is  in  proportion   to   the   property  interest  of  the 
various  classes  of  the  people ;  and  the  very  boast  that  so 
many  rich  men  aro  sen  ing  in  the  ranks  is  a  significant  proof 
either  of  the  want  oi'  i\  .-•  ihstratum,  or  of  the  absence  of  great 
devotion  to  the  cause  of  any  such  layer  of  white  people  as 
may  underlie  the  ,neaf    slaveholding,  mercantile,  and  plant 
ing  oligarchy.      The  whole  State  of  Louisiana  contains  about 
50,000  men  liablr  to  -•  rve  when  called  on.     Of  that  number 
only  15,000  are  enroll  •!  and  under  arms  in  any  shape  what 
ever;  and  if  one  is  to  judge  of  the  state  of  affairs  by  the 
advertisements   v.-hich   appear  from  the  Adjutant-General's 


128  THE    CIVIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA. 

office,  there  was  some  difficulty  in  procuring  the  3,000  men 
—  merely  3,000  volunteers  —  "to  serve  during  the  war," 
who  are  required  by  the  Confederate  Government.  There 
is  plenty  of  "  prave  lords,"  and  if  fierce  writing  and  talking 
could  do  work,  the  armies  on  both  sides  would  have  been 
killed  and  eaten  long  ago.  It  is  found  out  that  "  the  lives 
of  the  citizens  "  at  Pensacola  are  too  valuable  to  be  de 
stroyed  in  attacking  Pickens.  A  storm  that  shall  drive 
away  the  ships,  a  plague,  yellow  fever,  mosquitoes,  rattle 
snakes,  small-pox  —  any  of  these  agencies  is  looked  to  with' 
confidence  to  do  the  work  of  shot,  shell,  and  bayonet.  Our 
American  "  brethren  in  arms"  have  yet  to  learn  that  great 
law  in  American  cookery,  that  "  if  they  want  to  make  ome 
lets  they  must  break  eggs."  The  "  moral  suasion  "  of  the 
lasso,  of  head-shaving,  ducking,  kicking,  and  such  processes, 
are,  I  suspect,  used  not  unfrequently  to  stimulate  volun 
teers  ;  and  the  extent  to  which  the  acts  of  the  recruiting 
officer  are  somewhat  aided  by  the  arm  of  the  law,  and  the 
force  of  the  policeman  and  the  magistrate,  may  be  seen  from 
paragraphs  in  the  morning  papers  now  and  then,  to  the 
effect  that  certain  gentlemen  of  Milesian  extraction,  who 
might  have  been  engaged  in  pugilistic  pursuits,  were  dis 
charged  from  custody,  unpunished,  on  condition  that  they 
enlisted  for  the  war.  With  the  peculiar  views  entertained 
of  freedom  of  opinion  and  action  by  large  classes  of  people 
on  this  continent,  such  a  mode  of  obtaining  volunteers  is 
very  natural,  but  resort  to  it  eyinces  a  want  of  zeal  on  the 
part  of  some  of  the  50,000  who  are  on  the  rolls  ;  and,  from 
all  I  can  hear  —  and  I  have  asked  numerous  persons  likely 
to  be  acquainted  with  the  subject  —  there  are  not  more  than 
those  15,000  men  of  whom  I  have  spoken  in  all  the  State 
under  arms,  or  in  training,  of  whom  a  considerable  proportion 
will  be  needed  for  garrison  and  coast  defence  duties.  It  may 
be  that  the  Northern  States  and  Northern  sentiments  are  as 
violent  as  the  South,  but  I  see  some  evidences  to  the  con 
trary.  For  instance,  in  New  York  ladies  and  gentlemen 
from  the  South  are  permitted  to  live  at  their  favorite  hotels 
without  molestation ;  and  one  hotel-keeper  at  Saratoga 
Springs  advertises  openly  for  the  custom  of  his  Southern 
patrons.  In  no  city  of  the  South  which  I  have  visited 
would  a  party  of  Northern  people  be  permitted  to  remain 
for  an  hour  if  the  "  citizens  "  were  aware  of  their  presence. 
It  is  laughable  to  hear  men  speaking  of  the  "  unanimity  "  of 
th  •  South.  Just  look  at  the  peculiar  means  by  which  un»"- 


THE    CIVIL    WAK    IN    AMERICA. 


129 


imity  is  enforced    and   secured.      This  is  an  extract  from  a 
New  Orleans  paper  : 

"  CHARGES  OF  ABOLITIONISM.  —  Mayor  Monroe  has  disposed  of  some 
of  the  cases  brought  before  him  on  charges  of  this  kind  by  sending 
the  accused  to  the  workhouse. 

"  A  Mexican,  named  Bernard  Cruz,  born  in  Tampico,  and  living  here 
with  an  Irish  wife,  was  brought  before  the  Mayor  this  morning, 
charged  with  uttering  Abolition  sentiments.  After  a  full  investiga 
tion,  it  was  found  that  from  the  utterance  of  his  incendiary  language, 
that  Cruz's  education  was  not  yet  perfect  in  Southern  classics,  and  his 
Honor  therefore  directed  that  he  be  sent  for  six  months  to  the  Humane 
Institution  for  the  Amelioration  of  the  Condition  of  Northern  Bar 
barians  and  Abolition  Fanatics,  presided  over  by  Professor  Henry 
Mitchell,  keeper  of  the  workhouse,  and  who  will  put  him  through  a 
course  of  study  on  Southern  ethics  and  institutions. 

'*  The  testimony  before  him  on  Saturday,  however,  in  the  case  of  a 
man  named  David  O'Keefe,  was  such  as  to  induce  him  to  commit  the 
accused  for  trial  before  the  Criminal  Court.  One  of  the  witnesses 
testified  positively  that  she  heard  him  make  his  children  shout  for  Lin 
coln;  another,  that  the  accused  said,  '  I  am  an  Abolitionist,'  &c.  The 
witnesses,  neighbors  of  the  accused,  gave  their  evidence  reluctantly, 
saying  they  had  warned  him  of  the  folly  and  danger  of  his  conduct. 
O'Keefe  says  he  has  been  a  United  States  soldier,  and  came  here  from 
St.  Louis  and  Kansas. 

"John  White  was  arraigned  before  Recorder  Emerson  on  Saturday 
for  uttering  incendiary  language  while  travelling  in  the  baggage  car  of 
a  train  of  the  New  Orleans,  Ohio  and  Great  Western  Railroad,  inti 
mating  that  the  decapitator  of  Jefferson  Davis  would  get  $10,000  for 
his  trouble,  and  the  last  man  of  us  would  be  whipped  like  dogs  by 
the  Lincolnites.  He  was  held  under  bonds  of  $'500  to  answer  the 
charge  on  the  8th  of  June. 

"  Nicholas  Gento,  charged  with  declaring  himself  an  Abolitionist, 
and  acting  very  much  like  he  was  one  by  harboring  a  runaway  slave, 
was  sent  to  prison,  in  default  of  bail,  to  await  an  examination  before 
the  Recorder." 

Such  is  "  freedom  of  speech  "  in  Louisiana !  But  in 
Texas  the  machinery  for  the  production  of  "  unanimity  "  is 
less  complicated,  and  there  are  no  insulting  legal  formalities 
connected  with  the  working  of  the  simple  appliances  which 
a  primitive  agricultural  people  have  devised  for  their  own 
purposes.  Hear  the  Texan  correspondent  of  one  of  the 
journals  of  this  city  on  the  subject.  "  It  is  to  us  astonish 
ing,"  he  says, 

"  That  such  unmitigated  lies  as  those  Northern  papers  disseminate 
as  anarchy  and  disorder  here  in  Texa  ,  dissension  among  ourselves, 
and  especially  from  our  German,  &c.,  population,  with  dangers  and 
anxieties  from  the  fear  of  insurrection  among  the  negroes,  »,V,c.,  should 
be  deemed  anywhere  South  worthy  of  a  moment's  thought.  It  is  sure 
ly  notorious  enough  that  in  no  part  of  the  South  are  Abolitionists  or 
other  disturbers  of  the  public  peace  so  very  unsafe  as  in  Texas.  The 
lasso  is  so  very  convenient !  " 


130  THE    CIVIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA. 

Here  is  an  excellent  method  of  preventing  dissension  de 
scribed  by  a  stroke  of  the  pen  ;  and,  as  such,  an  ingenious  peo 
ple  are  not  likely  to  lose  sight  of  the  uses  of  a  revolution  in 
developing  peculiar  principles  to  their  own  advantage,  repudi 
ation  of  debts  to  the  North  has  been  proclaimed  and  acted  on. 
One  gentleman  has  found  it  convenient  to  inform  Major 
Anderson  that  he  does  not  intend  to  meet  certain  bills 
which  he  had  given  the  Major  for  some  slaves.  Another 
declares  he  won't  pay  anybody  at  all,  as  he  has  discovered 
it  is  immoral  and  contrary  to  the  laws  of  nations  to  do  so. 
A  third  feels  himself  bound  to  obey  the  commands  of  the 
Governor  of  his  State,  who  has  ordered  that  debts  due  to 
the  North  shall  not  be  liquidated.  As  a  naive  specimen 
of  the  way  in  which  the  whole  case  is  treated,  take  this  art 
icle  and  the  correspondence  of  "  one  of  the  most  prominent 
mercantile  houses  of  New  Orleans :  " 


SOUTHERN  DEBTS  TO  THE  NORTH. 

"  The  Cincinnati  Gazette  copies  the  following  paragraph  from  The 
New  York  Evening  Post  : 

"  '  BAD  FAITH.  — The  bad  faith  of  the  Southern  merchants  in  their 
transactions  with  their  Northern  correspondents  is  becoming  more 
evident  daily.  We  have  heard  of  several  recent  cases  where  parties 
in  this  city,  retired  from  active  business,  have,  nevertheless,  stepped 
forward  to  protect  the  credit  of  their  Southern  friends.  They  are  now 
coolly  informed  that  they  cannot  be  reimbursed  for  these  advances 
until  the  war  is  over.  We  know  of  a  retired  merchant  who  in  this 
way  has  lost  $100,000.'  — and  adds  : 

"  '  The  same  here.  Men  who  have  done  most  for  the  South  are  the 
chief  sutferers.  Debts  are  coolly  repudiated  by  the  Southern  mer 
chants,  who  have  heretofore  enjoyed  a  first-class  reputation.  Men 
who  have  grown  rich  upon  the  trade  furnished  by  the  West  are  among 
the  first  to  pocket  the  money  of  their  correspondents,  asking,  with  all 
the  impudence  and  assurance  of  a  highwayman,  "  What  are  you  going 
to  do  about  it?  "  There  is  honor  among  thieves,  it  is  said,  but  there  is 
not  a  spark  of  honor  among  these  repudiating  merchants.  People  who 
have  aided  and  trusted  them  to  the  last  moment  are  the  greatest 
losers.  There  is  a  future,  however.  This  war  will  be  over,  and  the 
Southern  merchants  will  desire  a  resumption  of  their  connections  with 
the  West.  As  the  repudiators  —  such  as  Goodrich  &  Co.  of  New 
Orleans  —  will  be  spurned,  there  will  be  a  grand  opening  for  honest 
men. 

*'  '  There  are  many  honorable  exceptions  in  the  South,  but  dishon 
esty  is  the  rule.  The  latter  is  but  the  development  of  latent  rascality. 
The  rebellion  has  afforded  a  pretext  merely  for  the  swindling  opera 
tions.  The  parties  previously  ac^ed  honestly,  only  because  that  was 
the  best  policy.  The  sifting  process  that  may  now  be  conducted  will 
be  of  advantage  to  Northern  merchants  in  the  future.  The  present 
losses  will  be  fully  made  up  by  subsequent  gains.' 


THE    CITIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA.  131 

"  We  have  been  requested  to  copy  the  following  reply  to  this  tirade 
from  one  of  our  most  prominent  mercantile  houses,  Messrs.  Goodrich 
&  Co.: 

"  '  NEW  ORLEANS,  May  24,  1-61. 

"'Cincinnati  Gazelle.  —  We  were  handed,  through  a  friend  of 
ours,  your  issue  of  the  18th  inst.,  and  attention  directed  to  an  article 
contained  therein,  in  which  you  are  pleased  to  particularize  us  out  of 
a  large  number  of  highly  respectable  merchants  of  this  and  other 
Southern  cities  as  repudiators,  swindlers,  and  other  epithets,  better 
suited  to  the  mouths  of  the  Wilson  Regiment  of  New  York  than  from 
a  once  respectable  sheet,  but  now  has  sunk  so  low  in  the  depths  of 
niggerdom,  that  it  would  take  all  the  soap  in  Porkopolis  and  the  Ohio 
River  to  cleanse  it  from  its  foul  pollution. 

1  '  We  are  greatly  indebted  to  you  for  using  our  name  in  the  above 
article,  as  we  deem  it  the  best  card  you  could  publish  for  us,  and  may 
add  greatly  to  our  business  relations  in  the  Confederate  States,  which 
will  enable  us  in  the  end  to  pay  our  indebtedness  to  those  who  propose 
cutting  our  throats,  destroying  our  property,  stealing  our  negroes,  and 
starving  our  wives  and  children,  to  pay  such  men  in  times  of  war.  You 
may  term  it  rascality,  but  we  beg  leave  to  call  it  patriotism. 

' '  Giving  the  sinews  of  war  to  your  enemies  have  ever  been  consid 
ered  as  treason.  —  Kent. 

"  Now  for  'repudiating.'  We  have  never,  nor  do  we  ever  expect  to 
repudiate  any  debt  owing  by  our  firm.  But  this  much  we  will  say, 
never  will  we  pay  a  debt  due  by  us  to  a  man,  or  any  company  of  men, 
who  is  a  known  Black  Republican,  and  marching  in  battle  array  to 
invade  our  homes  and  firesides,  until  every  such  person  shall  be  driven 
back,  and  their  polluted  footsteps  shall,  now  on  our  once  happy  soil 
be  entirely  obliterated. 

'  We  have  been  in  business  in  this  city  for  twenty  years,  have 
passed  through  every  crisis  with  our  names  untarnished  or  credit  im 
paired,  and  would  at  present  sacrifice  all  we  have  made,  were  it  neces 
sary,  to  sustain  our  credit  in  the  Confederacy,  but  care  nothing  for 
the  opinions  of  such  as  are  open  and  avowed  enemies.  We  are  suffi 
ciently  known  in  this  city  not  to  require  the  indorsement  of  The  Cin 
cinnati  Gazette,  or  any  such  sheet,  for  a  character. 

'  The  day  is  coming,  and  not  far  distant,  when  there  will  be  an 
awful  reckoning,  and  we  are  willing  and  determined  to  stand  by  our 
Confederate  flag,  sink  or  swim,  and  would  like  to  meet  some  of  The 
Gazette's  editors  vis-a-vis  on  the  field  of  blood,  and  see  who  would  be 
the  first  to  flinch. 

*  *  Our  senior  partner  has  already  contributed  one  darkey  this  year 
to  your  population,  and  she  is  anxious  to  return,  but  we  have  a  few 
more  left  which  you  can  have,  provided  you  will  come  and  take  them 
yourselves. 

"'We  have  said  more  than  we  intended,  and  hope  you  will  give 
this  a  place  in  your  paper.  GOODRICH  &  Co.'" 

There  is  some  little  soreness  felt  here  about  the  use  of  the 
word  "  repudiation,"  and  it  will  do  the  hearts  of  some  peo 
ple  good,  and  will  carry  comfort  to  the  ghost  of  the  Rev. 
Sydney  Smith,  if  it  can  hear  the  tidings,  to  know  I  have 


132  THE    CIVIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA. 

been  assured,  over  and  over  again,  by  eminent  mercantile 
people  and  statesmen,  that  there  is  "  a  general  desire  "  on 
the  part  of  the  repudiating  States  to  pay  their  bonds,  and 
that  no  doubt,  at  some  future  period,  not  very  clearly  ascer- 
tainable  or  plainly  indicated,  that  general  desire  will  cause 
some  active  steps  to  be  taken  to  satisfy  its  intensity,  of  a 
character  very  unexpected,  and  very  gratifying  to  those  in 
terested.  The  tariff  of  the  Southern  Confederation  has  just 
been  promulgated,  and  I  send  herewith  a  copy  of  the  rates. 
Simultaneously,  however,  with  this  document,  the  United 
States  steam  frigates  Brooklyn  and  Niagara  have  made  their 
appearance  off  the  Pas-a-1' Outre,  and  the  Mississippi  is 
closed,  and  with  it  the  port  of  New  Orleans.  The  steam- 
tugs  refuse  to  tow  out  vessels  for  fear  of  capture,  and  British 
ships  are  in  jeopardy. 

MAY  25.  —  A  visit  to  the  camp  at  Tangipao,  about  fifty 
miles  from  New  Orleans,  gave  an  occasion  for  obtaining  a 
clearer  view  of  the  internal  military  condition  of  those  forces 
of  which  one  reads  much,  and  sees  so  little,  than  any  other 
way.  Major-General  Lewis  of  the  State  Militia,  and;  staff, 
and  General  Labuzan,  a  Creole  officer,  attended  by  Major 
Ranney,  President  of  the  New-Orleans,  Jackson,  and 
Great  Northern  Railway,  and  by  many  officers  in  uniform, 
started  with  that  purpose  at  4:30  this  evening  in  a  rail- 
carriage,  carefully  and  comfortably  fitted  for  their  reception. 
The  militia  of  Louisiana  has  not  been  called  out  for  many 
years,  and  its  officers  have  no  military  experience,  and  the 
men  have  no  drill  or  discipline. 

Emerging  from  the  swampy  suburbs,  we  sT)on  pass  be 
tween  white  clover  pastures,  which  we  are  told  invariably 
salivate  the  herds  of  small  but  plump  cattle  browsing  upon 
them.  Soon  cornfields  "  in  tassel,"  alternate  with  long 
narrow  rows  of  growing  sugar-cane,  which,  though  scarce 
ly  a  fourth  of  the  height  of  the  maize,  will  soon  over 
shadow  it ;  and  the  cane-stalks  grow  up  so  densely  to 
gether  that  nothing  larger  than  a  rattle-snake  can  pass 
between  them. 

From  Kennersville,  an  ancient  sugar  plantation  cut  up 
into  "  town  lots,"  our  first  halt,  ten  miles  out,  we  shoot 
through  a  cypress  swamp,  the  primitive  forest  of  this  region, 
and  note  a  greater  affluence  of  Spanish  moss  than  in  the 
woods  of  Georgia  or  Carolina.  There  it  hung,  like  a  her 
mit's  beard,  from  the  pensile  branch.  Here,  to  one  who 


THE    CIVIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA.  133 

should  venture  to  thread  the  snake  and  alligator  haunted 
mazes  of  the  jungle,  its  matted  profusion  must  resemble 
clusters  of  stalactites  pendent  •from  the  roof  of  some 
vast  cavern  ;  for  the  gloom  of  an  endless  night  appears  to 
pervade  the  deeper  recesses,  at  the  entrance  of  which  stand, 
tike  outlying  skeleton  pickets,  the  unfelled  and  leafless  pa 
triarchs  of  the  clearing,  that  for  a  breadth  of  perhaj^|  fifty 
yards  on  either  side  seems  to  have  furnished  the  road  with 
its  sleepers. 

The  gray  swamp  yields  to  an  open  savannah,  beyond 
which,  upon  the  left,  a  straggling  line  of  sparse  trees  skirts 
the  left  bank  of  the  Mississippi,  and  soon  after  the  broad 
expanse  of  Lake  Pontchartrairi  appears  within  gunshot  of 
our  right,  only  separated  from  the  road  by  one  hundred 
yards  or  more  of  rush-covered  prairie,  which  seems  but  a 
feeble  barrier  against  the  caprices  of  so  extensive  a  sheet  of 
water  subject  to  the  influences  of  wind  and  tide.  In  fact, 
ruined  shanties  and  outhouses,  fields  laid  waste,  and  pros 
trate  fences  remain  evidences  of  the  ravages  of  the  "  Wash  v 
which  a  year  ago  inundated  and  rendered  the  railroad  im 
passable  save  for  boats.  The  down  trains  first  notice  of  the 
disaster  was  the  presence  of  a  two-story  frame  building, 
which  the  waves  had  transported  to  the  road,  and  its  pas 
sengers,  detained  a  couple  of  days  in  what  now  strikes  us 
as  a  most  grateful  combination  of  timber-skirted  meadow 
and  lake  scenery,  were  rendered  insensible  to  its  beauties 
by  the  torments  of  hungry  mosquitoes.  Had  its  engineers 
given  the  road  but  eighteen  inches  more  elevation  its  pat 
rons  would  have  been  spared  this  suffering,  and  its  stock 
holders  might  have  rejoiced  in  a  dividend.  Many  of  the 
settlers  have  abandoned  their  improvements.  Others, 
chiefly  what  are  here  called  Dutchmen,  have  resumed 
their  tillage  with  unabated  zeal,  and  large  fields  of  cab 
bages,  one  of  them  embracing  not  less  than  sixty  acres, 
testify  to  their  energy. 

Again  through  miles  of  cypress  swamps  the  train  passes 
on  to  what  is  called  the  "  trembling  prairie,"  where  the 
sleepers  are  laid  upon  a  tressel-work  of  heavier  logs,  so  that 
the  rails  are  raised  by  "  cribs "  of  timber  nearly  a  yard 
above  the  morass.  Three  species  of  rail,  one  of  them  as 
large  as  a  curlew,  and  the  summer  duck,  seem  the  chief  oc 
cupants  of  the  marsh,  but  white  cranes  and  brown  bitterns 
take  the  alarm,  and  falcons  and  long-tailed  "  blackbirds  " 
sail  in  the  distance. 
12 


134  THE    CIVIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA. 

Toward  sunset  a  halt  took  place  upon  the  long  bridge 
that  divides  Lake  Maurepas,  a  picturesque  sheet  of  water 
which  blends  with  the  horizon  on  our  left,  from  Pass  Maun- 
shae,  an  arm  of  Lake  Pontchartrain,  which  disappears  in 
the  forest  on  our  right.  Half  a  dozen  wherries  and  a  small 
fishing-smack  are  moored  in  front  of  a  rickety  cabin,  crowd 
ed  byj;he  jungle  to  the  margin  of  the  cove.  It  is  the  first 
token  of  a  settlement  that  has  occurred  for  miles,  and  when 
we  have  sufficiently  admired  the  scene,  rendered  picturesque 
in  the  sunset  by  the  dense  copse,  the  water  and  the  bright 
colors  of  the  boats  at  rest  upon  it,  a  commotion  at  the  head 
of  the  train  arises  from  the  unexpected  arrival  upon  the 
"  switch"  of  a  long  string  of  cars  filled  with  half  a  regi 
ment  of  Volunteers,  who  had  been  enlisted  for  twelve 
months'  service,  and  now  refused  to  be  mustered  in  for 
the  war,  as  required  by  the  recent  enactment  of  the  Mont 
gomery  Congress.  The  new  comers  are  at  length  safely 
lodged  on  the  "  turn  off,"  and  our  train  continues  its  jour 
ney.  As  we  pass  the  row  of  cars,  most  of  them  freight 
wagons,  we  are  hailed  with  shouts  and  yells  in  every 
key  by  the  disbanded  Volunteers,  who  seem  a  youngish, 
poorly- clad,  and  undersized  lot,  though  noisy  as  a  street 
mob. 

After  Maunshae,  the  road  begins  to  creep  up  toward  terra, 
fir  ma,  and  before  nightfall  there  was  a  change  from  cypresses 
and  swamp  laurels  to  pines  and  beeches,  and  we  inhale  the 
purer  atmosphere  of  dry  land,  with  an  occasional  whiff  of 
resinous  fragrance,  that  dispels  the  fever-tainted  suggestions 
of  the  swamp  below.  There  we  only  breathed  to  live. 
Here  we  seem  to  live  to  breathe.  The  rise  of  the  road  is 
a  grade  of  but  a  foot  to  the  mile,  and  yet  at  the  camp  an 
elevation  of  not  more  than  eighty  feet  in  as  many  miles 
suffices  to  establish  all  the  climatic  difference  between  the 
malarious  marshes  and  a  much  higher  mountain  region. 

But  during  our  journey  the  hampers  have  not  been  ne 
glected.  The  younger  members  of  the  party  astonish  the 
night-owls  with  patriotic  songs,  chiefly  French,  and  the 
French  chiefly  with  the  "  Marseillaise,"  which,  however 
inappropriate  as  the  slogan  of  the  Confederate  States,  they 
persist  in  quavering,  forgetful,  perhaps,  that  not  three-quar 
ters  of  a  century  ago  Toussaiant  1'Ouverture  caught  the 
words  and  air  from  his  masters,  and  awoke  the  lugubrious 
notes  of  the  insurrection. 

Towards  nine  P.  M.,  the  special  car  rests  in  the  woods, 


THE    CIVIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA.  135 

and  is  flanked  on  one  side  by  the  tents  and  watch-fires  of  a 
small  encampment,  chiefly  of  navvy  and  cotton-handling 
Milesian  volunteers,  called  "  the  Tigers,"  from  their  pre 
hensile  powers  and  predatory  habits.  A  guard  is  stationed 
around  the  car  ;  a  couple  of  Ethiopians  who  have  attended 
us  from  town  are  left  to  answer  the  query,  quis  custodiet 
ipsos  custodes  1  and  we  make  our  way  to  the  hotel,  which 
looms  up  in  the  moonlight  in  a  two-storied  dignity.  Here, 
alas  !  there  have  been  no  preparations  made  to  sleep  or  feed 
us.  The  scapegoat  "  nobody "  announced  our  coming. 
Some  of  the  guests  are  club  men,  used  to  the  small  hours, 
who  engage  a  room,  a  table,  half  a  dozen  chairs,  and  a  brace 
of  bottles  to  serve  as  candlesticks.  They  have  brought 
stearine  and  pasteboards  with  them,  and  are  soon  deep  in 
the  finesses  of  "  Euchre."  We  quietly  stroll  back  to  the 
car,  our  only  hope  of  shelter.  At  the  entrance  we  are 
challenged  by  a  sentry,  apparently  ignorant  that  he  has  a 
percussion  cap  on  his  brown  rifle,  which  he  levels  at  us 
cocked.  From  this  unpleasant  vision  of  an  armed  and  reck 
less  Tiger  rampant  we  are  relieved  by  one  of  the  dusky 
squires,  who  assures  the  sentinel  that  we  are  tk  all  right," 
and  proceeds  to  turn  over  a  seat  and  arrange  what  might  be 
called  a  sedan-chair  bed,  in  which  we  prepare  to  make  a 
night  of  it.  Our  party  is  soon  joined  by  others  in  quest  of 
repose,  and  in  half  an  hour  breathings,  some  of  them  so 
deep  as  to  seem  subterranean,  indicate  that  all  have  attained 
their  object  —  like  Manfred's  —  forgetfulness. 

An  early  breakfast  of  rashers  and  eggs  was  prepared  at 
the  table  d'hote,  which  we  were  told  would  be  replenished 
half-hourly  until  noon,  when  a  respite  of  an  hour  was  allow 
ed  to  the  "help"  in  which  to  make  ready  a  dinner,  to  be 
served  in  the  same  progression. 

Through  a  shady  dingle  a  winding  path  led  to  the  camp, 
and,  after  trudging  a  pleasant  half  mile,  a  bridge  of  boards, 
resting  on  a  couple  of  trees  laid  across  a  pool,  was  passed, 
and,  above  a  slight  embankment,  tents  and  soldiers  are  re 
vealed  upon  a  "  clearing  "  of  some  thirty  acres  in  the  midst 
of  a  pine  forest.  Turning  to  the  left,  we  reach  a  double 
row  of  tents,  only  distinguished  from  the  rest  by  their  "  fly 
roofs  "  and  boarded  floors,  and,  in  the  centre,  halt  opposite 
to  one  which  a  poster  of  capitals  on  a  planed  deal  marks  as 
"  Head-quarters."  Major-General  Tracy  commands  the 
camp.  The  white  tents  crouching  close  to  the  shade  of  the 
pines,  the  parade  alive  with  groups  and  colors  as  various  as 


136  THE    CIVIL   WAR    IN    AMERICA. 

those  of  Joseph's  coat,  arms  stacked  here  and  there,  and 
occasionally  the  march  of  a  double  file  in  green,  or  in  maz 
arine  blue,  up  an  alley  from  the  interior  of  the  wood,  to  be 
dismissed  in  the  open  camp,  resembles  a  militia  muster,  or  a 
holiday  experiment  at  soldiering,  rather  than  the  dark  shadow 
of  forthcoming  battle.  The  cordon  of  sentinels  suffer  no 
Volunteer  to  leave  the  precincts  of  the  camp,  even  to  bathe, 
without  a  pass  or  the  word.  There  are  neither  wagons 
nor  ambulances,  and  the  men  are  rolling  in  barrels  of 
bacon  and  bread  and  shouldering  bags  of  pulse  —  good 
picnic  practice  and  campaigning  gymnastics  in  fair  weather. 

The  arms  of  these  Volunteers  are  the  old  United  States 
smooth-bore  musket,  altered  from  flint  to  percussion,  with 
bayonet  —  a  heavy  and  obsolete  copy  of  Brown  Bess  in 
bright  barrels.  All  are  in  creditable  order.  Most  of  them 
have  never  been  used,  even  to  fire  a  parade  volley,  for  pow 
der  is  scarce  in  the  Confederated  States,  and  must  not  be 
wasted.  Except  in  their  material,  the  shoes  of  the  troops 
are  as  varied  as  their  clothing.  None  have  as  yet  been  served 
out,  and  each  still  wears  the  boots,  the  brogans,  the  patent 
leathers,  or  the  Oxford  ties  in  which  he  enlisted.  The  tents 
have  mostly  no  other  floor  than  the  earth,  and  that  rarely 
swept ;  while  blankets,  boxes,  and  utensils  are  stowed  in 
corners  with  a  disregard  of  symmetry  that  would  drive  a 
martinet  mad.  Camp  stools  are  rare  and  tables  invisible, 
save  here  and  there  in  an  officer's  tent.  Still  the  men  look 
well,  and,  we  are  told,  would  doubtless  present  a  more 
cheerful  appearance,  but  for  some  little  demoralization  oc 
casioned  by  discontent  at  the  repeated  changes  in  the  organic 
structure  of  the  regiments,  arising  from  misapprehensions 
between  the  State  and  Federal  authorities,  as  well  as  from 
some  favoritism  toward  certain  officers,  effected  by  political 
wire-pulling  in  the  governing  councils.  The  system  of 
electing  officers  by  ballot  has  made  the  camp  as  thoroughly 
a  political  arena  as  the  poll  districts  in  New  Orleans  before 
an  election,  and  thus  many  heroes,  seemingly  ambitious  of 
epaulettes,  are  in  reality  only  "  laying  pipes  "  for  the  attain 
ment  of  civil  power  or  distinction  after  the  war. 

The  volunteers  we  met  at  Maunshae  the  previous  evening 
had  been  enlisted  by  the  State  to  serve  for  twelve  months, 
and  had  refused  to  extend  their  engagement  for  the  war  — 
a  condition  now  made  precedent  at  Montgomery  to  their 
being  mustered  into  the  army  of  the  Confederate  States. 
Another  company,  a  majority  of  whom  persist  in  the  same 


THE    CIVIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA.  137 

refusal,  were  disbanded  while  we  were  patrolling  the  camp, 
and  an  officer  told  one  of  the  party  he  had  suffered  a  loss  of 
six  hundred  volunteers  by  this  disintegrating  process  within 
the  last  twenty-four  hours.  Some  of  these  country  com 
panies  were  skilled  in  the  use  of  the  rifle,  and  most  of  them 
had  made  pecuniary  sacrifices  in  the  way  of  time,  journeys, 
and  equipments.  Our  informant  deplored  this  reduction  of 
volunteers,  as  tending  to  engender  dissaffection  in  the  par 
ishes  to  which  they  will  return,  and  comfort  when  known  to 
the  Abolitionists  of  the  North.  He  added  that  the  war  will 
not  perhaps  last  a  twelvemonth,  and  if  unhappily  prolonged 
bey.ond  that  period,  the  probabilities  are  in  favor  of  the 
short-term  recruits  willingly  consenting  to  a  reenlistment. 

The  encampment  of  the  "  Perrit  Guards  "  was  worthy  of 
a  visit.  Here  was  a  company  of  professional  gamblers,  one 
hundred  and  twelve  strong,  recruited  for  the  war  in  a  moment 
of  banter  by  one  of  the  patriarchs  of  the  fraternity,  who, 
upon  hearing  at  the  St.  Charles  Hotel  one  evening,  that  the 
vanity  or  the  patriotism  of  a  citizen,  not  famed  for  liberality, 
had  endowed  with  81,000  a  company  which  was  to  bear  his 
name,  exclaimed  that  "he  would  give  $1,500  to  any  one 
who  should  be  fool  enough  to  form  a  company  and  call  it 
after  him."  In  less  than  an  hour  after  the  utterance  of  this 
caprice,  Mr.  Perrit  was  waited  upon  by  fifty-six  "  profes 
sionals,"  who  had  enrolled  their  names  as  the  "Perrit 
Guards,"  and  unhesitatingly  produced  from  his  wallet  the 
sum  so  sportively  pledged.  The  Guards  are  uniformed  in 
Mazarin  blue  flannel  with  red  facings,  and  the  captain,  a 
youngish-looking  fellow,  with  a  hawk's  eye,  who  has  seen 
service  with  Scott  in  Mexico  and  Walker  in  Nicaragua, 
informed  us  that  there  is  not  a  pair  of  shoes  in  the  company 
that  cost  less  than  six  dollars,  and  that  no  money  has  been 
spared  to  perfect  their  other  appointments.  A  sack  of  ice 
and  half  a  dozen  silver  goblets  enforced  his  invitation  "  to 
take  a  drink  at  his  quarters,"  and  we  were  served  by  an 
African  in  uniform,  who  afterward  offered  us  cigars  received 
by  the  last  Havana  steamer.  Looking  at  the  sable  attend 
ant,  one  of  the  party  observes  that  if  these  "experts  of 
fortune  win  the  present  fight,  it  will  be  a  case  of  couleur 
gagne." 

It  would  be  difficult  to  find  in  the  same  number  of  men 

taken   at   hazard    greater   diversities   of    age,   stature,   and 

physiognomy  ;    but  in  keenness  of  eye  and  imperturbility 

of  demeanor  they  exhibit  a  family  likeness,  and  there  is  not 

12* 


138  THE    CIVIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA. 

an  unintelligent  face  in  the  company.  The  gamblers,  or,  as 
they  are  termed,  the  "  sports,"  of  the  United  States  have  an 
air  of  higher  breeding  and  education  than  the  dice-throwers 
and  card-turners  of  Ascot  or  Newmarket  —  nay,  they  may  be 
considered  the  Anglo-Saxon  equals,  minus  the  title,  of  those 
times  damnees  of  the  continental  nobility  who  are  styled 
Greeks  by  their  Parisian  victims.  They  are  the  .  Pariahs  of 
American  civilization,  who  are,  nevertheless,  in  daily  and 
familiar  intercourse  with  their  patrons,  and  not  restricted,  as 
in  England,  to  a  betting-ring  toleration  by  the  higher  orders. 
The  Guards  are  the  model  company  of  Camp  Moore,  and  I 
should  have  felt  disposed  to  admire  the  spirit  of  gallantry 
with  which  they  have  volunteered  in  this  war  as  a  purifica 
tion  by  fire  of  their  maculated  lives,  were  it  not  hinted  that 
the  "  Oglethorpe  Guards,"  and  more  than  one  other  company 
of  volunteers,  are  youths  of  large  private  fortunes,  and  that 
in  the  Secession,  as  in  the  Mexican  War,  these  patriots  will 
doubtless  pursue  their  old  calling  with  as  much  profit  as 
they  may  their  new  one  with  valor. 

From  the  Lower  Camp  we  wind  through  tents,  which 
diminish  in  neatness  and  cleanliness  as  we  advance  deeper, 
to  the  Upper  Division,  which  is  styled  "Camp  Tracy,"  a 
newer  formation,  whose  brooms  have  been  employed  with 
corresponding  success.  The  adjutant's  report  for  the  day 
sums  up  one  thousand  and  seventy -three  rank  and  file,  and 
but  two  on  the  sick  list.  On  a  platform,  a  desk  beneath 
the  shade  of  the  grove  holds  a  Bible  and  Prayer-book,  that 
await  the  arrival  at  ten  o'clock  of  the  Methodist  preacher, 
who  is  to  perform  Divine  service.  The  green  uniforms  of 
the  "Hibernian  Guards,"  and  the  gray  and  light  blue  dress 
of  other  companies,  appertain  to  a  better-  appointed  sort  of 
men  than  the  Lower  Division. 

There  may  be  two  thousand  men  in  Camp  Moore  —  not 
more,  and  yet  every  authority  gives  us  a  different  figure. 
The  lowest  estimate  acknowledged  for  the  two  camps  is 
three  thousand  five  hundred  men,  and  The  Picayune  and 
other  New  Orleans  papers  still  speak  in  glowing  terms  of 
the  five  thousand  heroes  assembled  in  Tangipao.  Although 
the  muster  there  presents  a  tolerable  show  of  ball-stoppers, 
it  would  require  months  of  discipline  to  enable  them  to  pass 
for  soldiers  even  at  the  North ;  and  besides  that  General 
Tracy  has  never  had  other  experience  than  in  militia  duty, 
there  is  not,  I  think,  a  single  West  Point  officer  in  his 
whole  command.  The  only  hope  of  shaping  such  raw  ma- 


THE    CIVIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA.  139 

terial  to  the  purposes  of  war,  would  naturally  be  by  the 
admixture  of  a  proper  allowance  of  military  experience,  and 
until  those  possessing  it  shall  be  awarded  to  Camp  Moore, 
we  must  sigh  over  the  delusion  which  pictures  its  denizens 
to  the  good  people  of  New  Orleans  as  "  fellows  ready  for 
the  fray." 

While  the  hampers  are  being  ransacked  an  express  loco 
motive  arrives  from  town  with  despatches  for  General  Tracy, 
who  exclaims  when  reading  them,  "  Always  too  late  ! "  from 
which  expression  it  is  inferred  that  orders  have  been  received 
to  accept  the  just-disbanded  volunteers.  The  locomotive 
was  hitched  to  the  car  and  drew  it  back  to  the  city.  Our 
car  was  built  in  Massachusetts,  the  engine  in  Philadelphia, 
and  the  magnifier  of  its  lamp  in  Cincinnati.  What  will  the 
South  do  for  such  articles  in  future  ? 

MAY  26.  —  In  the  evening,  as  I  was  sitting  in  the  house 
of  a  gentleman  in  the  city,  it  was  related  as  a  topic  of  con 
versation  that  a  very  respectable  citizen  named  Bibb  had  had 
a  difficulty  with  three  gentlemen,  who  insisted  on  his  read 
ing  out  the  news  for  them  from  his  paper  as  he  went  to 
market  in  the  early  morning.  Mr.  Bibb  had  a  revolver 
"  casually  "  in  his  pocket,  and  he  shot  one  citizen  dead  on 
the  spot,  and  wounded  the  other  two  severely,  if  not  mor 
tally.  "  Great  sympathy,"  I  am  told,  "  is  felt  for  Mr.  Bibb." 
There  has  been  a  skirmish  somewhere  on  the  Potomac,  but 
Bibb  has  done  more  business  "  on  his  own  hook"  than  any 
of  the  belligerents  up  to  this  date  ;  and,  though  I  can  scarcely 
say  I  sympathize  with  him,  far  be  it  from  me  to  say  that  I  do 
not  respect  him. 

One  curious  result  of  the  civil  war  in  its  effects  on  the 
South  will,  probably,  extend  itself  as  the  conflict  continues 
—  I  mean  the  refusal  of  the  employers  to  pay  their  workmen, 
on  the  ground  of  inability.  The  natural  consequence  is  much 
distress  and  misery.  The  English  Consul  is  harassed  by 
applications  for  assistance  from  mechanics  and  skilled  labor 
ers  who  are  in  a  state  bordering  on  destitution  and  starva 
tion.  They  desire  nothing  better  than  to  leave  the  country 
and  return  to  their  homes.  All  business,  except  tailoring  for 
soldiering  and  cognate  labors,  are  suspended.  Money  is  not 
to  be  had.  Bills  on  New  York  are  worth  little  more  than 
the  paper,  and  the  exchange  against  London  is  enormous  — 
18  per  cent,  discount  from  the  par  value  of  the  gold  in  bank, 
good  draughts  on  England  having  been  negotiated  yesterday 


140  THE    CIVIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA. 

at  92  per  cent.  One  house  has  been  compelled  to  accept  4 
per  cent,  on  a  draught  on  the  North,  where  the  rate  was 
usually  from  £  per  cent,  to  J-  per  cent.  There  is  some  fear 
that  the  police  force  will  be  completely  broken  up,  and  the 
imagination  refuses  to  guess  at  the  result.  The  city  schools 
will  probably  be  closed  —  altogether,  things  do  not  look  well 
at  New  Orleans.  When  all  their  present  difficulties  are  over, 
a  struggle  between  the  mob  and  the  oligarchy,  or  those  who 
have  no  property  and  those  who  have,  is  inevitable ;  for  one 
of  the  first  acts  of  the  Legislature  will  probably  be  directed 
to  establish  some  sort  of  qualification  for  the  right  of  suf 
frage,  relying  on  the  force  which  will  be  at  their  disposal  on 
the  close  of  the  war.  As  at  New  York,  so  at  New  Orleans. 
Universal  suffrage  is  denounced  as  a  curse,  as  corruption 
legalised,  confiscation  organized.  As  I  sat  in  a  well-fur 
nished  club-room  last  night,  listening  to  a  most  respectable, 
well-educated,  intelligent  gentleman  descanting  on  the  prac 
tices  of  "  the  Thugs  "  —  an  organized  band  who  coolly  and 
deliberately  committed  murder  for  the  purpose  of  intimida 
ting  Irish  and  German  voters,  and  were  only  put  down  by  a 
Vigilance  Committee,  of  which  he  was  a  member  —  I  had 
almost  to  pinch  myself  to  see  that  I  was  not  the  victim  of  a 
horrid  nightmare. 

MONDAY,  May  27.  —  The  Washington  Artillery  went  off 
to-day  to  the  wars  —  quo  fas  et  gloria  ducunt ;  but  I  saw  a 
good  many  of  them  in  the  streets  •  after  the  body  had  de 
parted  —  spirits  who  were  disembodied.  Their  uniform  is 
very  becoming,  not  unlike  that  of  our  own  foot  artillery, 
and  they  have  one  battery  of  guns  in  good  order.  I  looked 
in  vain  for  any  account  of  Mr.  Bibb's  little  affair  yesterday 
in  the  papers.  Perhaps,  as  he  is  so  very  respectable,  there 
will  not  be  any  reference  to  it  at  all.  Indeed,  in  some  con 
versation  on  the  subject  last  night  it  was  admitted  that 
when  men  were  very  rich  they  might  find  judges  and  jury 
men  as  tender  as  Danae,  and  policeman  as  permeable  as  the 
walls  of  her  dungeon.  The  whole  question  now  is,  "  What 
will  be  done  with  the  blockade  ? "  The  Confederate 
authorities  are  acting  with  a  high  hand.  An  American 
vessel,  the  Ariel,  which  had  cleared  out  of  port  with  British 
subjects  on  board,  has  been  overtaken,  captured,  and  her 
crew  have  been  put  in  prison.  The  ground  is  that  she  is 
owned  in  main  by  Black  Republicans.  The  British  sub 
jects  have  received  protection  from  the  Consul.  Prizes 


THE    CIVIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA.  141 

have  been  made  within  a  league  of  shore,  and  in  one  in 
stance,  when  the  captain  protested,  his  ship  was  taken  out 
to  sea,  and  was  then  re-captured  formally.  I  went  round 
to  several  merchants  to-day ;  they  were  all  gloomy  and 
fierce.  In  fact,  the  blockade  of  Mobile  is  announced,  and 
that  of  New  Orleans  has  commenced,  and  men-of-war  have 
been  reported  off  the  Pas-a-1'Outre.  The  South  is  beginning 
to  feel  that  it  is  being  bottled  up  all  fermenting  and  froth 
ing,  and  is  somewhat  surprised  and  angry  at  the  natural 
results  of  its  own  acts,  or,  at  least,  of  the  proceedings  which 
have  brought  about  a  state  of  war.  Mr.  Slidell  did  not 
seem  at  all  contented  with  the  telegrams  from  the  North, 
and  confessed  that  "  if  they  had  been  received  by  way  of 
Montgomery  he  should  be  alarmed."  The  names  of  per 
sons  liable  for  military  service  have  been  taken  down  in 
several  districts,  and  British  subjects  have  been  included. 
Several  applications  have  been  made  to  Mr.  Mure,  the  Con 
sul,  to  interfere  in  behalf  pf  men  who,  having  enlisted,  are 
now  under  orders  to  march,  and  who  must  leave  their 
families  destitute  if  they  go  away ;  but  he  has,  of  course, 
no  power  to  exercise  any  influence  in  such  cases.  The 
English  journals  to  the  4th  of  May  have  arrived  here  to 
day.  It  is  curious  to  see  how  quaint  in  their  absurdity  the 
telegrams  become  when  they  have  reached  the  age  of  three 
weeks.  I  am  in  the  hapless  position  of  knowing,  without 
being  able  to  remedy,  the  evils  from  this  source,  for  there 
is  no  means  of  sending  through  to  New  York  political  in 
formation  of  any  sort  by  telegraph.  The  electric  fluid  may 
be  the  means  of  blasting  and  blighting  many  reputations, 
as  there  can  be  no  doubt  the  revelations  which  the  Govern 
ment  at  Washington  will  be  able  to  obtain  through  the  files 
of  the  despatches  it  has  seized  at  the  various  offices,  will 
compromise  some  whose  views  have  recently  undergone 
remarkable  changes.  It  is  a  hint  which  may  not  be  lost  on 
Governments  in  Europe  when  it  is  desirable  to  know  friends 
and  foes  hereafter,  and  despotic  rulers  will  not  be  slow  to 
take  a  hint  from  "  the  land  of  liberty." 

Orders  have  been  issued  by  the  Governor  to  the  tow- 
boats  to  take  out  the  English  vessels  by  the  southwest 
passage,  and  it  is  probable  they  will  all  get  through  with 
out  any  interruption  on  the  part  of  the  blockading  force. 
It  may  be  imagined  that  the  owners  and  consignees  of 
cargoes  from  England,  China,  and  India,  which  are  on 
their  way  here,  are  not  at  all  easy  in  their  minds.  Two  of 


142  THE    CIVIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA. 

the  Washington  Artillery  died  in  the  train  on  their  way  to 
that  undefinable  region  called   "  the  seat  of  war." 

MAY  28.  —  The  Southern  States  have  already  received 
the  assistance  of  several  thousands  of  savages,  or  red  men, 
and  "  the  warriors  "  are  actually  engaged  in  pursuing  the 
United  States  troops  in  Texas  in  conjunction  with  the  State 
Volunteers.  A  few  days  ago  a  deputation  of  the  chiefs  of 
the  Five  Nations,  Creeks,  Choctaws,  Seminoles,  Camanches, 
and  others  passed  through  New  Orleans  on  their  way  to 
Montgomery,  where  they  hoped  to  enter  into  terms  with 
the  Government  for  the  transfer  of  their  pension  list  and 
other  responsibilities  from  Washington,  and  to  make  such 
arrangements  for  their  property  and  their  rights  as  would 
justify  them  in  committing  their  fortunes  to  the  issue  of  war. 
These  tribes  can  turn  out  twenty  thousand  warriors,  scalp- 
ing-knives,  tomahawks,  and  all.  The  chiefs  and  principal 
men  are  all  slaveholders. 

MAY  29. — A  new  "affair"  occurred  this  afternoon. 
The  servants  of  the  house  in  which  I  am  staying  were 
alarmed  by  violent  screams  in  a  house  in  the  adjoining 
street,  and  by  the  discharge  of  firearms  —  an  occurrence 
which,  like  the  cry  of  "  murder  "  in  the  streets  of  Havana, 
clears  the  streets  of  all  wayfarers  if  they  be  wise,  and  do 
not  wish  to  stop  stray  bullets.  The  cause  is  thus  stated  in 
the  j  ournals  : 

"SAD  FAMILY  AFFRAY.  —  Last  evening,  at  the  resi 
dence  of  Mr.  A.  P.  Withers,  in  Nayades  street,  near  Thalia, 
Mr.  Withers  shot  and  dangerously  wounded  his  step-son, 
Mr.  A.  F.  W.  Mather.  As  the  police  tell  it,  the  nature  of 
the  affair  was  this :  The  two  men  were  in  the  parlor,  and 
talking  about  the  Washington  Artillery,  which  left  on 
Monday  for  Virginia.  Mather  denounced  the  artillerists  in 
strong  language,  and  his  step-father  denied  what  he  said. 
Violent  language  followed,  and,  as  Withers  says,  Mather 
drew  a  pistol  and  shot  at  him  once,  not  hitting  him.  He 
snatched  up  a  Sharp's  revolver  that  was  lying  near  and  fired 
four  times  at  his  step-son.  The  latter  fell  at  the  third  fire, 
and  as  he  was  falling  Withers  fired  a  fourth  time,  the  bullet 
wounding  the  hand  of  Mrs.  Withers,  wife  of  one  and  mother 
of  the  other,  she  having  rushed  in  to  int^fere,  and  she 
being  the  only  witness  of  the  affair.  Withers  immediately 
went  out  into  the  street  and  voluntarily  surrendered  him 
self  to  officer  Casson,  the  first  officer  he  met.  He  was 


THE    CIVIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA.  143 

locked  up.     Three  of  his  shots  hit  Mather,  two  of  them  in 
the  breast.     Last  night  Mather  was  not  expected  to  live." 

Another  difficulty  is  connected  with  the  free  colored 
people  who  may  be  found  in  prize  ships.  Read  and  judge 
of  the  conclusion : 

"  What  shall  be  done  with  them  ?  —  On  the  28th  inst.,  Capt.  0.  W. 
Gregor,  of  the  privateer  Calhoun,  brought  to  the  station  of  this  dis 
trict  about  ten  negro  sailors,  claiming  to  be  free,  found  on  board  of 
the  brigs  Panama,  John  Adams,  and  Mermaid. 

'*  The  Recorder  sent  word  to  the  Marshal  of  the  Confederate  States 
that  said  negroes  were  at  his  disposition.  The  Marshal  refused  to 
receive  them  or  have  anything  to  do  with  them,  whereupon  the  Re 
corder  gave  the  following  decision  : 

"  '  Though  I  have  no  authority  to  act  in  this  case,  I  think  it  is  my 
duty  as  a  magistrate  and  good  citizen  to  take  upon  myself,  in  this 
critical  moment,  the  responsibility  of  keeping  the  prisoners  in  custody, 
firmly  believing  it  would  not  only  be  bad  policy,  but  a  dangerous  one, 
to  let  them  loose  upon  the  community.' 

"  The  following  despatch  was  sent  by  the  Recorder  to  the  Hon.  J. 
P.  Benjamin  : 

"  <NEW  ORLEANS,  May  23. 

"  «  To  J.  P.  BENJAMIN,  Richmond  —  Sir  :  Ten  free  negroes,  taken 
by  a  privateer  from  on  board  three  vessels  returning  to  Boston ,  from 
a  whaling  voyage,  have  been  delivered  to  me.  The  Marshal  refuses 
to  take  charge  of  them.  What  shall  I  do  with  them  ? 

•Respectfully,  A.   BLACHE, 

^  «  Recorder,  Second  District.'  >: 

The  monthly  statement  I  enclose  of  the  condition  of  the 
New  Orleans  banks  on  the  25th  inst.,  must  be  regarded  as 
a  more  satisfactory  exhibit  to  their  depositors  and  share 
holders,  though  of  no  greater  benefit  to  the  commercial  com 
munity  in  this  its  hour  of  need  than  the  tempting  show  of  a 
pastrycook's  window  to  the  famished  street  poor.  These 
institutions  show  assets  estimated  at  $54,000,000,  of  which 
$20,000,000  are  in  specie  and  sterling  exchange,  to  meet 
$25,000,000  of  liabilities,  or  more  than  two  for  one.  But, 
with  this  apparent  amplitude  of  resources,  the  New  Orleans 
banks  are  at  a  deadlock,  affording  no  discounts  and  buying 
no  exchange  —  the  latter  usually  their  greatest  source  of 
profit  in  a  mart  which  ships  so  largely  of  cotton,  sugar,  and 
flour,  and  the  commercial  movement  of  which  for  not  over 
nine  months  of  the  year  is  the  second  in  magnitude  among 
the  cities  of  the  old  Union. 

As  an  instance  of  the  caution  of  their  proceedings,  I  have 
only  to  state  that  a  gentleman  of  wealth  and  the  highest 
respectability,  who  ne'eded  a  day  or  two  since  some  money 
for  the  expenses  of  an  unexpected  journey,  was  compelled, 
in  order  to  borrow  of  these  banks  the  sum  of  $1,500,  to 


144  THE    CIVIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA. 

hypothecate,  as  security  for  his  bill  at  60  days,  $10,000  of 
bonds  of  the  Confederate  States,  and  for  which  a  month  ago 
he  paid  par  in  coin  —  a  circumstance  which  reflects  more 
credit  upon  the  prudence  of  the  banks  than  upon  the  security 
pledged  for  this  loan. 

MOVEMENTS  OF   THE   BANKS,   MAY  25,  1861. 

CASH   RESPONSIBILITIES. 

Circulation — Chartered  Banks,          .        .     $5,323,376 
Circulation  — Free  Banks,       .         .         .         .1,798,835 

$ 7,122,211 

Deposits  —  Chartered  Banks,      .  .     .        .  $12,979,307 
Deposits  —  Free  Banks,          ....    4,929,544 

$17,908,851 


Total, $25,031,062 

CASH  ASSETS. 

Coin— Chartered  Banks,        .         .         .        $10,808,812 
Coin  —  Free  Banks, 4,183,722 

$14,992,534 

Exchange,  chiefly  sterling  matured  and  matur 
ing  : 

Chartered  Banks,  .        .         .         $4,481,140 

Free  Banks, 1,083,928 

$5,565,068 


Total, .      $20,557,602 

Short  commercial  paper,  1  to  90  days,  in 
tended  to  meet  cash  responsibilities,  and 
not  renewable  : 

Chartered  Banks,          ;        .        .        $7,235,077 
Free  Banks,      .  4,670,979 

$11,906,056 


Total,        .        .        .        .        .        .        .       $32,463,658 

Circulation  of  the  Free  Banks,  secured  by  a 
deposit  in  the  public  Treasury,  of  State 
and  New  Orleans  City  Bonds,  to  the  amount 

of, $3,793,873 

The  Chartered  Banks  hold  of  the  same  secu 
rities,  1,747,467 

$5,541,340 

DEAD   WEIGHT. 

Chartered  Banks  —  bills  and  mortgaged  bonds 
and  other  assets,  not  realizable  in  90  days,  $14,140,925 

Free  Banks  —  bills  and  mortgaged  bonds  and 
other  assets,  not  realizable  in  90  days,  2,606,249 

$16,747,174 


Total, $54,752,172 

Remarks  :  . 

Amount  of  coin,  as  above,        .....          $14,993,531 


THE    CIVIL    WAR    IX    AMERICA.  145 

Amount  of  coin  required  by  the  Fundamental  Bank 
Rules  of  Louisiana  —  one-third  of  the  cash  respon 
sibilities,  say,  on  $25,031,062,  as  above,  .  .  .  $8,343,137 


Surplus,        .        .  '       .        .        .  .      $6,648,847 

Amount  of  short  notes  maturing  within  a  circle  of  90 

days,  and  exchange,  as  above,  ....  $17,471,124 

Amount  required  to  be  held  by  the  Fundamental  Bank 

Rules  —  at  least  two-thirds,  ....  $16,687,378 


Surplus,     .        .        .    v  .        .        .        .  $783,771 


LETTER     XIII. 

NATCHEZ,  Miss.,  June  14. 

ON  the  morning  of  the  3d  of  June,  I  left  New  Orleans  in 
one  of  the  steamers  proceeding  up  the  Mississippi,  along 
that  fertile  but  uninteresting  region  of  reclaimed  swamp 
lands  called  "  the  Coast,"  which  extends  along  both  banks 
for  one  hundred  and  twenty  miles  above  the  city.  It  is  so 
called  from  the  name  given  to  it,  "  La  Cote,"  by  the  early 
French  settlers.  Here  is  the  favored  land  —  alas  !  it  is  a 
fever-land  too  —  of  sugar-cane  and  Indian  corn.  To  those 
who  have  very  magnificent  conceptions  of  the  Mississippi, 
founded  on  mere  arithmetical  computations  of  leagues,  or 
vague  geographical  data,  it  may  be  astonishing,  but  it  is  nev 
ertheless  true,  the  Mississippi  is  artificial  for  many  hundreds 
of  miles.  Nature  has,  of  course,  poured  out  the  waters,  but 
man  has  made  the  banks.  By  a  vast  system  of  raised  em 
bankments,  called  levees,  the  river  is  constrained  to  abstain 
from  overflowing  the  swamps,  now  drained  and  green  with 
wealth-producing  crops.  At  the  present  moment  the  sur 
face  of  the  river  is  several  feet  higher  than  the  land  at  each 
side,  and  the  steamer  moves  on  a  level  with  the  upper  sto 
ries,  or  even  the  roofs  of  the  houses,  reminding  one  of  such 
scenery  as  could  be  witnessed  in  the  old  days  of  treckshuyt 
in  Holland.  The  river  is  not  broader  than  the  Thames  at 
Gravesend,  arrd  is  quite  as  richly  colored.  But  then  it  is 
one  hundred  and  eighty  feet  deep,  and  for  hundreds  of  miles 
it  has  not  less  than  one  hundred  feet  of  water.  Thus  deeply 
13 


146  THE    CIYIL    WAK    IN    AMERICA. 

has  it  scooped  out  the  rich  clay  and  marl  in  its  course,  but 
as  it  flows  out  to  join  the  sea  it  throws  down  the  vast  pre 
cipitates  which  render  the  bars  so  shifting  and  difficult,  and 
bring  the  mighty  river   to  such  a  poor  exit.     A  few  miles 
above  the  wharves  and  large  levees   of  th^dty  the  country 
really  appears  to  be  a  sea  of  light  green,  with  shores  of  forest 
in  the  distance,  about  two  miles  away  from  the  bank.     This 
forest   is   the  uncleared  land,  extending  for  a  considerable 
way  back,  which  each  planter  hopes  to  take  into  culture  one 
day  or  other,  and  which  he  now  uses  to  provide  timber  for 
his  farm.     Near  the  banks  are  houses  of  wood,  with  porti 
coes,   pillars,  verandahs,  and  sun-shades,  generally  painted 
white  and  green.     There  is  a  great  uniformity  of  style,  but 
the  idea  aimed  at    seems  to    be   that   of   the    old    French 
chateau,  with  the  addition  of  a  colonnade  round  the  ground 
story.     These  dwellings  are  generally  in  the  midst  of  small 
gardens,  rich  in  semi-tropical  vegetation,  with  glorious  mag 
nolias,  now  in  full  bloom,  rising  in  their  midst,  and  groves 
of  live-oak  interspersed.     The  levee   is  as   hard  and  dry  as 
the  bank  of  a  canal.     Here  and  there  it  is  propped  up  by 
wooden  revelments.     Between   it  and   the  uniform   line   of 
palings  which  guards  the  river  face  of  the  plantations  there 
is  a  carriage-road.     In   the   enclosure   near   each  residence 
there  is  a  row  of  small  wooden  huts,  whitewashed,  in  which 
live  the  negroes  attached  to  the  service  of  the  family.     Out 
side  the  negroes  who  labor  in  the  fields  are  quartered   in 
similar  constructions,  which  are  like   the  small  single  huts, 
called    "  Maltese,"    which    were   plentiful    in  the   Crimea. 
They  are  rarely  furnished  with  windows ;   a  wooden  slide  or 
a  grated  space  admits  such  light  and  air  as  they  want.     One 
of  the  most  striking  features  of  the   landscape  is   its  utter 
want  of  life.     There  were   a  few   horsemen  exercising  in  a 
field,  some  gigs  and  buggies  along  the  levee  roads,  and  little 
groups  at  the  numerous  landing-places,  generally  containing 
a  few  children  in  torn-fool  costumes,  as  Zouaves,  Chasseurs, 
or  some  sort  of  infantry,  but  the  slaves  who  were  there  had 
come  down  to  look  after  luggage  or  their  masters.     There 
were   no  merry,  laughing,   chattering   gatherings   of  black 
faces  and  white  teeth,  such  as  we  hear  about.     Indeed,  the 
negroes  are   not  allowed  hereabouts  to  stir  out  of  their  re 
spective  plantations,  or  to  go  along  the   road  without  passes 
from  their  owners.     The  steamer  J.  L.  Gotten,  which  was 
not  the  less  popular,  perhaps,  because  she  had  the  words 
"  Low  pressure"  conspicuous  on  her  paddle-boxes,  carried 


THE    CIVIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA.  147 

a  fair  load  of  passengers,  most  of  whom  were  members  of 
Creole  families  living  on  the  coast.     The  proper  meaning  of 
the  word  "  Creole  "  is  very  different  from  that  which  we 
attach  to  it.     It  signifies  a  person  of  Spanish  or  French  de 
scent  born   in   Louisiana  or  in  the   Southern   arid   tropical 
countries.     The    great   majority    of  the    planters  here   are 
French  Creoles,  and  it  is  said  they  are  kinder  and  better 
masters  than  Americans  or  Scotch,  the  latter  being  consid 
ered  the   most  severe.      Intelligent  on  most   subjects,  they 
are  resolute  in  the  belief  that  England  must  take  their  cot 
ton   or  perish.     Even   the   keenest  of  their  financiers,  Mr. 
Forstall,  an  Irish  Creole,  who  is  representative  of  the  house 
of  Baring,  seems  inclined  to  this  faith,  though  he  is  prepared 
with  many  ingenious  propositions,  which  would  rejoice  Mr. 
Gladstone's  inmost  heart,  to  raise  money  for   the    Southern 
Confederacy,  and  make  them  rich  exceedingly.      One  thing 
has  rather  puzzled  him.     M.  Baroche,  who  is  in  New  Or 
leans,  either  as  a  looker-on   or   as   an  accredited  employe  of 
bis  father   or   of  the  French  Government,  suggested  to  him 
that  it  would  not  be  possible  for  all  the  disposable  mercan 
tile  marine   of  England  and   France   together   to   carry  the 
cotton  crop,   which   hitherto  gave   employment   to  a  great 
number  of  American   vessels,  now   tabooed  by  the  South, 
and  the  calculations  seem    to   bear  out  the  truth  of  the  re 
mark.      Be  that  as  it  may,  Mr.  Forstall  is  quite  prepared  to 
show  that  the   South  can  raise  a  prodigious  revenue  by  a 
small  direct  taxation,  for  which  the  machinery  already   ex 
ists  in  every  parish  of  the   State,  and  that   the  North  must 
be  prodigiously  damaged  in  the  struggle,  if  not  ruined  out 
right.     One   great  source  of  strength  in  the   South  is  its 
readiness  —  at  least,  its  professed  alacrity  —  to  yield  any 
thing  that  it  is  asked.     There  is  unbounded  confidence  in 
Mr.  Jefferson  Davis.      Wherever  I  go,  the  same  question  is 
asked :     "  Well,  Sir,  what  do  you  think  of  our  President  ? 
Does  he  not   strike  you   as   being   a  very  able  man  ?  "     In 
finance  he  is  trusted  as  much  as  in  war.      When  he  sent  or 
ders  to  the  New  Orleans  Banks,  some  time  ago,  to  suspend 
specie   payment,  he   exercised  a   power  which  could  not  be 
justified  by  any  reading  of  the  Southern  Constitution.     All 
men  applauded.     The  President  of  the  United  States  is  far 
from  receiving  any  such  support  or  confidence,  and  it  need 
not  be  said  any  act  of  his  of  the  same  nature  as  that  of  Mr. 
Davis  would  have  created  an  immense  outcry  against  him. 
But  the  South  has  all  the  unanimity  of  a  conspiracy,  and  its 


148  THE    CIVIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA. 

unanimity  is  not  greater  than  its  confidence.  One  is  rather 
tired  cf  endless  questions,  "  Who  can  conquer  such  men  ?  " 
But  the  question  should  be,  "  Can  the  North  conquer  us  ?  " 
Or  the  fustian  about  dying  in  their  tracks  and  fighting  till 
every  man,  woman  and  child  is.  exterminated,  there  is  a 
great  deal  too  much,  but  they  really  believe  that  the  fate 
which  Poland  could  not  avert,  to  which  France  as  well  as 
the  nations  she  overran  bowed  the  head,  can  never  reach 
them.  With  their  faithful  negroes  to  raise  their  corn,  sugar 
and  cotton  while  they  are  at  the  wars,  and  England  and 
France  to  take  the  latter  and  pay  them  for  it,  they  believe 
they  can  meet  the  American  world  in  arms.  A  glorious 
future  opens  before  them.  Illimitable  fields  tilled  by  mul 
titudinous  negroes  open  on  their  vision,  and  prostrate  at  the 
base  of  the  mountain  of  cotton  frcm  which  they  rule  the 
kings  of  the  earth,  the  empires  of  Europe  shall  lie,  with  all 
their  gold,  their  manufactures,  and  their  industry,  crying 
out,  "  Pray  give  us  more  cotton  !  All  we  ask  is  more  !  " 
But  here  is  the  boat  stopping  oyposite  Mr.  Roman's  —  Ex- 
Governor  of  the  State  of  Louisiana,  and  Ex-Commissioner 
from  the  Confederate  Government  at  Montgomery  to  the 
Government  of  the  United  States  at  Washington.  Not  very 
long  ago  he  could  boast  of  a  very  handsome  garden  —  the 
French  Creoles  love  gardens  —  Americans  and  English  do 
not  much  affect  them ;  when  the  Mississippi  was  low  one 
fine  day,  levee  and  all  slid  down  the  bank  into  the  maw  of 
the  river,  and  were  carried  off.  This  is  what  is  called  the 
"  caving  in  "  of  a  bank  ;  when  the  levee  is  broken  through 
at  high  water  it  is  said  that  a  "  crevasse"  has  taken  place. 
The  Governor,  as  he  is  called  —  once  a  captain  always  a 
captain  —  has  still  a  handsome  garden,  however,  though  his 
house  has  been  brought  unpleasantly  near  the  river.  His 
mansion  and  the  out-offices  stand  in  the  shade  of  magno 
lias,  green  oaks,  and  other  Southern  trees.  To  the  last 
Governor  Roman  was  a  Unionist,  but  when  his  State  went 
he  followed  her,  and  now  he  is  a  Secessionist  for  life  and  for 
death,  not  extravagant  in  his  hopes,  but  calm  and  resolute, 
and  fully  persuaded  that  in  the  end  the  South  must  win. 
As  he  does  not  raise  any  cotton,  the  consequences  for  him 
will  be  extremely  serious  should  sugar  be  greatly  depreci 
ated  ;  but  the  consumption  of  that  article  in  America  is 
very  large,  and,  though  the  markets  in  the  North  and  West 
are  cut  off,  it  is  hoped,  as  no  imported  sugar  can  find  its 
way  into  the  States,  that  the  South  will  consume  all  its  own 


THE    CIVIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA.  149 

produce  at  a  fair  rate.  The  Governor  is  a  very  good  type 
of  the  race,  which  is  giving  way  a  little  before  the  en 
croachments  of  the  Anglo-Saxons,  and  he  possesses  all  the 
ease,  candid  manner,  and  suavity  of  the  old  French  gentle 
man  —  of  that  school  in  which  there  are  now  few  masters  or 
scholars.  He  invited  me  to  visit  the  negro  quarters.  **  Go 
where  you  like,  do  what  you  please,  ask  any  questions. 
There  is  nothing  we  desire  to  conceal."  As  we  passed  the 
house,  two  or  three  young  women  flitted  past  in  snow-white 
dresses  with  pink  sashes,  and  no  doubtful  crinolines,  but 
their  head-dresses  were  not  en  regie  —  handkerchiefs  of  a 
gay  color.  They  .  were  slaves  going  off  to  a  dance  at  the 
sugar-house  ;  but  they  were  in-door  servants,  and  therefore 
better  off  in  the  way  of  clothes  than  their  fellow  slaves  who 
labor  in  the  field.  On  approaching  a  high  paling  at  the 
rear  of  the  house  the  scraping  of  fiddles  was  audible.  It 
was  Sunday,  and  Mr.  Roman  informed  me  that  he  gave  his 
negroes  leave  to  have  a  dance  on  that  day.  The  planters 
who  are  not  Catholics  rarely  give  any  such  indulgence  to 
their  slaves,  though  they  do  not  always  make  them  work  on 
that  day,  and  sometimes  let  them  enjoy  themselves  on  the 
Saturday  afternoon.  Entering  a  wicket  gate,  a  quadrangu 
lar  enclosure,  lined  with  negro  huts,  lay  before  us.  The 
bare  ground  was  covered  with  litter  of  various  kinds,  amid 
which  pigs  and  poultry  were  pasturing.  Dogs,  puppies, 
and  curs  of  low  degree  scampered  about  on  all  sides  ;  and 
deep  in  a  pond,  swinking  in  the  sun,  stood  some  thirty  or 
forty  mules,  enjoying  their  day  of  rest.  The  huts  of  the 
negroes,  belonging  to  the  personal  service  of  the  house,  were 
separated  from  the  negroes  engaged  in  field  labor  by  a  close 
wooden  paling  ;  but  there  was  no  difference  in  the  shape 
and  size  of  their  dwellings,  which  consisted  generally  of  one 
large  room,  divided  by  a  partition  occasionally  into  two  bed 
rooms.  Outside  the  whitewash  gave  them  a  cleanly  appear 
ance  ;  inside  they  were  dingy  and  squalid  —  no  glass  in  the 
windows,  swarms  of  flies,  some  clothes  hanging  on  nails  in 
the  boards,  dressers  with  broken  crockery,  a  bedstead  of 
rough  carpentry  ;  a  fireplace  in  which,  hot  as  was  the  day,  a 
log  lay  in  embers ;  a  couple  of  tin  cooking  utensils  ;  in  the 
obscure,  the  occupant,  male  or  female,  awkward  and  shy 
before  strangers,  and  silent  till  spoken  to.  Of  course  there 
were  no  books,  for  the  slaves  do  not  read.  They  all  seemed 
respectful  to  their  master.  We  saw  very  old  men  and  very 
old  women,  who  were  the  canker-worms  of  the  estate,  and 


150  THE    CIVIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA. 

were  dozing  away  into  eternity  mindful  only  of  hominy, 
and  pig,  and  molasses.  Two  negro  fiddlers  were  working 
their  bows  with  energy  in  front  of  one  of  the  huts,  and  a 
crowd-  of  little  children  were  listening  to  the  music,  and  a 
few  gro  vn-up  persons  of  color  —  some  of  them  from  the  ad 
joining  plantations.  The  children  are  generally  dressed  in 
a  little  sack  of  coarse  calico,  which  answers  all  reasonable 
purposes,  even  if  it  be  not  very  clean.  It  might  be  an  in 
teresting  subject  of  inquiry  to  the  natural  philosophers  who 
follow  crinology  to  determine  why  it  is  that  the  hair  of  the 
infant  negro,  or  of  the  child  up  to  six  or  seven  years  of  age, 
is  generally  a  fine  red  russet,  or  even  gamboge  color,  and 
gradually  darkens  into  dull  ebon.  These  little  bodies  were 
mostly  large-stomached,  well  fed,  and  not  less  happy  than 
free-born  children,  although  much  more  valuable  —  for 
once  they  get  over  juvenile  dangers,  and  advance  towards 
nine  or  ten  years  of  age,  they  rise  in  value  to  £100  or  more, 
even  in  times  when  the  market  is  low  and  money  is  scarce. 
The  women  were  not  very  well-favored,  except  one  yellow 
girl,  whose  child  was  quite  white,  with  fair  hair  and  light 
eyes  ;  and  the  men  were  disguised  in  such  strangely  cut 
clothes,  their  hats  and  shoes  and  coats  were  so  wonderfully 
made,  that  one  could  not  tell  what  they  were  like.  On  all 
faces  there  was  a  gravity  which  must  be  the  index  to  serene 
contentment  and  perfect  comfort,  for  those  who  ought  to 
know  best  declare  they  are  the  happiest  race  in  the  world. 
It  strut  k  me  more  and  more,  as  I  examined  the  expression 
of  the  faces  of  the  slaves  all  over  the  South,  that  deep  de 
jection  is  the  prevailing,  if  not  universal,  characteristic  of  the 
race.  Let  a  physiognomist  go  and  see.  Here  there  were 
abundant  evidences  that  they  were  well  treated,  for  they  had 
good  clothing  of  its  kind,  good  food,  and  a  master  who  wit 
tingly  could  do  them  no  injustice,  as  he  is,  I  am  sure,  inca 
pable  of  it.  Still,  they  all  looked  exceedingly  sad,  and  even 
the  old  woman  who  boasted  that  she  had  held  her  old  mas 
ter  in  her  arms  when  he  was  an  infant,  did  not  look  cheer 
ful,  as  the  nurse  at  home  would  have  done,  at  the  sight  of 
her  ancient  charge.  The  precincts  of  the  huts  were  not 
clean,  and  the  enclosure  was  full,  of  weeds,  in  which  poultry 
—  the  perquisites  of  the  slaves  —  were  in  full  possession. 
The  negroes  rear  domestic  birds  of  all  kinds,  and  sell  eggs 
and  poultry  to  their  masters.  The  money  they  spend  in 
purchasing  tobacco,  molasses,  clothes  and  flour  —  whiskey, 
their  great  delight,  they  must  not  have.  Some  seventy  or 


THE    CIVIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA.  151 

eighty  hands  were  quartered  in  this  part  of  the  estate.  The 
silence  which  reigned  in  the  huts  as  soon  as  the  fiddlers  had 
gone  off  to  the  sugar-house  was  profound.  Before  leaving 
the  quarter  I  was  taken  to  the  hospital,  which  was  in  charge 
of  an  old  negress.  The  naked  rooms  contained  several 
flock  beds  on  rough  stands,  and  five  patients,  three  of  whom 
were  women.  They  sat  listlessly  on  the  beds,  looking  out 
into  space  ;  no  books  to  amuse  them,  no  conversation  — 
nothing  but  their  own  dull  thoughts,  if  they  had  any.  They 
were  suffering  from  pneumonia  and  swellings  of  the  glands 
of  the  neck  ;  one  man  had  fever.  Their  medical  attendant 
visits  them  regularly,  and  each  plantation  has  a  practitioner, 
who  is  engaged  by  the  term  for  his  services.  Negroes  have 
now  only  a  nominal  value  in  the  market  —  that  the  price  of 
a  good  field  hand  is  as  high  as  ever,  but  there  is  no  one  to 
buy  him  at  present,  and  no  money  to  pay  for  him,  and  the 
trade  of  the  slave-dealers  is  very  bad.  The  menageries  of 
the  "  Virginia  negroes  constantly  on  sale.  Money  advanced 
on  all  descriptions  of  property,"  &c.,  must  be  full  —  their 
pockets  empty.  This  question  of  price  is  introduced  inci 
dentally  in  reference  to  the  treatment  of  negroes.  It  has 
often  been  said  to  me  that  no  one  will  ill-use  a  creature 
worth  £300  or  £400,  but  that  is  not  a  universal  rule.  Much 
depends  on  temper,  and  many  a  hunting-field  could  show 
that  if  value  be  a  guarantee  for  good  usage,  the  slave  is  more 
fortunate  than  his  fellow  chattel,  the  horse.  If  the  growth 
of  sugar-cane,  cotton  and  corn,  be  the  great  end  of  man's 
mission  on  earth,  and  if  all  masters  were  like  Governor  Ro 
man,  Slavery  might  be  defended  as  a  natural  and  innocuous 
institution.  Sugar  and  cotton  are,  assuredly,  two  great 
agencies  in  this  latter  world.  The  older  got  on  well  enough 
without  them. 

The  scraping  of  the  fiddles  attracted  us  to  the  sugar- 
house,  a  large  brick  building  with  a  factory-looking  chim 
ney,  where  the  juice  of  the  cane  is  expressed,  boiled,  granu 
lated,  and  prepared  for  the  refiner.  In  a  space  of  the  floor 
unoccupied  by  machinery  some  fifteen  women  and  as  many 
men  were  assembled,  and  four  couples  were  dancing  a  kind 
of  Irish  jig  to  the  music  of  the  negro  musicians  —  a  double 
shuffle  and  thumping  ecstasy,  with  loose  elbows,  pendu 
lous  paws,  and  angulated  knees,  heads  thrown  back,  and 
backs  arched  inwards  —  a  glazed  eye,  intense  solemnity  of 
mien,  worthy  of  the  minuet  in  Don  Giovanni.  At  this  time 
of  year  there  is  no  work  done  in  the  sugar-house,  but  when 


152  THE    CIVIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA. 

the  crushing  and  boiling  are  going  on  the  labor  is  intense, 
and  all  the  hands  work  in  gangs  night  and  day  ;  and,  if  the 
heat  of  the  fires  be  superadded  to  the  temperature  in  Sep 
tember,  it  may  be  conceded  that  nothing  but  "  involuntary 
servitude  "  could  go  through  the  toil  and  suffering  required 
to  produce  sugar  for  us.  This  is  not  the  place  for  an  ac 
count  of  the  processes  and  machinery  used  in  the  manufac 
ture,  which  is  a  scientific  operation,  greatly  improved  by 
recent  discoveries  and  apparatus. 

In  the  afternoon  the  Governor's  son  came  in  from  the 
company  which  he  commands.  He  has  been  camping  out 
with  them  to  accustom  them  to  the  duties  of  actual  war,  and 
he  told  me  that  all  his  men  were  most  zealous  and  exceed 
ingly  proficient.  They  are  all  of  the  best  families  around,  — 
planters,  large  and  small,  their  sons  and  relatives,  and  a  few 
of  the  Creole  population,  who  are  engaged  as  hoopers  and 
stavemakers.  One  of  the  latter  had  just  stained  his  hands 
with  blood.  He  had  reason  to  believe  a  culpable  intimacy 
existed  between  his  wife  and  his  foreman.  A  circumstance 
occurred  which  appeared  to  confirm  his  worst  suspicions. 
He  took  out  his  fire-lock,  and,  meetirg  the  man,  he  shot 
him  without  uttering  a  word,  and  then  delivered  himself  up 
to  the  authorities.  It  is  probable  his  punishment  will  be 
exceedingly  light,  as  divorce  suits  and  actions  for  damages 
are  not  in  favor  in  this  part  of  the  world.  Although  the 
people  are  Roman  Catholics,  it  is  by  no  means  unusual  to 
permit  relations  within  the  degree  of  consanguinity  forbid 
den  by  the  Church  to  intermarry,  and  the  elastic  nature  of 
the  rules  which  are  laid  down  by  the  priesthood  in  that 
respect  would  greatly  astonish  the  orthodox  in  Ireland  or 
Bavaria.  The  whole  of  the  planters  and  their  dependents 
along  "  the  coast "  are  in  arms.  There  is  but  one  senti 
ment,  as  far  as  I  can  see,  among  them,  and  that  is,  "  We 
will  never  submit  to  the  North."  In  the  evening,  several 
officers  of  M.  Alfred  Roman's  company  and  neighbors  came 
in,  and  out  under  the  shade  of  the  trees,  in  the  twilight, 
illuminated  by  the  flashing  fireflies,  politics  were  discussed 
—  all  on  one  side,  of  course,  with  general  conversation  of 
a  more  agreeable  character.  The  customary  language  of  the 
Creoles  is  French,  and  several  newspapers  in  French  are 
published  in  the  districts  around  us ;  but  they  speak  Eng 
lish  fluently. 

Next  morning,  early,  the  Governor  was  in  the  saddle  and 
took  me  round  to  see  his  plantation.  We  rode  through 


THE    CIVIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA.  153 

alleys  formed  by  the  tall  stalks  of  the  maze  out  to  the 
wide,  unbroken  fields  —  hedgeless,  un walled,  where  the 
green  cane  was  just  learning  to  wave  its  long  shoots  in  the 
wind.  Along  the  margin  in  the  distance  there  is  an  un 
broken  boundary  of  forest  extending  all  along  the  swamp 
lands,  and  two  miles  in  depth.  From  the  river  to  the  forest 
theie  is  about  one  mile  and  a  half  or  more  of  land  of  the 
very  highest  quality  —  unfathomable,  and  producing  from 
one  to  one  and  a  half  hogshead  an  acre.  Away  in  the 
midst  of  the  crops  were  white-looking  masses,  reminding 
me  of  the  sepoys  and  sowars  as  seen  in  Indian  fields  in  the 
morning  sun  on  many  a  march.  As  we  rode  towards  them 
we  overtook  a  cart  with  a  large  cask,  a  number  of  tin  ves 
sels,  a  bucket  of  molasses,  a  pail  of  milk,  and  a  tub  full  of 
hominy  or  boiled  Indian  corn.  The  cask  contained  water 
for  the  use  of  the  negroes,  and  the  other  vessel  held  the 
materials  for  their  breakfast,  in  addition  to  which  they  gen 
erally  have  each  a  dried  fish.  The  food  looked  ample  and 
wholesome,  such  as  any  laboring  man  would  be  well  content 
with  every  day.  There  were  three  gangs  at  work  in  the 
fields.  One  of  them  with  twenty  mules  and  plows,  was  en 
gaged  in  running  through  the  furrows  between  the  canes, 
cutting  up  the  weeds  and  clearing  away  the  grass,  which  is 
the  enemy  of  the  growing  shoot.  The  mules  are  of  a  fine, 
large,  good-tempered  kind,  and  understand  their  work  al 
most  as  well  as  the  drivers,  who  are  usually  the  more  intel 
ligent  hand  on  the  plantation.  The  overseer,  a  sharp-look 
ing  Creole,  on  a  lanky  pony,  whip  in  hand,  superintend 
their  labors,  and,  after  a  few  directions  and  a  salutation  to 
the  governor,  rode  off  to  another  part  of  the  farm.  The 
negroes  when  spoken  to  saluted  us  and  came  forward  to 
shake  hands  —  a  civility  which  must  not  be  refused.  With 
the  exception  of  crying  to  their  mules,  however,  they  kept 
silence  when  at  work.  Another  gang  consisted  of  forty 
men,  who  were  hoeing  out  the  grass  in  Indian  corn  —  easy 
work  enough.  The  third  gang  was  of  thirty-six  or  thirty- 
seven  women,  who  were  engaged  in  hoeing  out  cane.  Their 
clothing  seemed  heavy  for  the  climate,  their  shoes  ponderous 
and  ill-made,  so  as  to  wear  away  the  feet  of  their  thick 
stockings.  Coarse  straw  hats  and  bright  cotton  handker 
chiefs  prdtected  their  heads  from  the  sun.  The  silence 
which  I  have  already  alluded  to  prevailed  among  these 
gangs  also  —  not  a  sound  could  be  heard  but  the  blows  of 
the  hoe  on  the  heavy  clods.  In  the  rear  of  each  gang  stood 


154  THE    CIVIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA. 

a  black  overseer,  with  a  heavy-thonged  whip  over  his 
shoulder.  If  *»  Alcibiadev"  or  **  Pompee"  were  called  out, 
he  came  with  outstretched  hand  to  ask  '*  how  do  you  do," 
and  then  returned  to  his  labor  ;  but  the  ladies  were  coy, 
and  scarcely  looked  up  from  under  their  flapping  chapeaux 
de  paille  at  their  visitors.  Those  who  are  mothers  leave 
their  children  in  the  charge  of  certain  old  women,  unfit  for 
anything  else,  and  "  suckers,"  as  they  are  called,  are  per 
mitted  to  go  home  to  give  their  infants  the  breast  at  ap 
pointed  periods  in  the  day.  I  returned  home  multa  mtcum 
revolens.  After  breakfast,  in  spite  of  a  very  fine  sun,  which 
was  not  unworthy  of  a  January  noon  in  Cawnpore,  we 
drove  forth  to  visit  some  planter  friends  of  M.  Roman,  a 
few  miles  down  the  river.  The  levee  road  is  dusty,  but  the 
gardens,  white  railings,  and  neat  houses  of  the  planters 
looked  fresh  and  clean  enough.  There  is  a  great  difference 
in  the  appearance  of  the  slaves'  quarters.  Some  are  neat, 
others  are  dilapidated  and  mean.  As  a  general  rule,  it 
might  be  said  that  the  goodness  of  the  cottages  was  in  pro 
portion  to  the  frontage  of  each  plantation  towards  the  river, 
which  is  a  fair  index  to  the  size  of  tho  estate  wherever 
the  river  bank  is  straight.  The  lines  of  the  estate  are 
drawn  perpendicularly  to  the  banks,  so  that  the  convexity 
or  concavity  of  the  bends  determines  the  frontage  of  the 
plantation. 

The  absence  of  human  beings  in  the  fields  and  on  the 
roads  was  remarkable.  The  gangs  at  work  were  hidden  in 
the  deep  corn,  and  not  a  soul  met  us  on  the  road  for  many 
miles  except  one  planter  in  his  gig.  At  one  place  we  visit 
ed  a  very  handsome  garden,  laid  out  with  hot-houses  and 
conservatories,  ponds  full  of  magnificent  Victoria  Regia 
in  flower,  orange  trees,  and  many  other  tropical  plants,  na 
tive  and  foreign,  date  and  other  palms.  The  proprietor 
owns  an  extensive  sugar  refinery.  We  visited  his  factory 
and  mills,  but  the  heat  from  the  boilers,  which  seemed  too 
much  even  for  all  but  naked  negroes  who  were  at  work, 
did  not  tempt  us  to  make  a  very  long  sojourn  inside.  The 
ebony  faces  and  polished  black  backs  of  the  slaves  were 
streaming  with  perspiration  as  they  toiled  over  boiler,  vat 
and  centrifugal  driers.  The  good  refiner  was  not  gaining 
much  at  present,  for  sugar  has  been  falling  rapidly  in  New 
Orleans,  and  the  three  hundred  thousand  barrels  produced 
annually  in  the  South  will  fall  short  in  the  yield  of  profit, 
which,  on  an  average,  may  be  taken  at  £11  a  hogshead, 


THE    CIVIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA.  155 

without   counting    the   molasses   for   the  planter.     All  the 
planters  hereabouts  have  sown  an  unusual  quantity  of  Indian 
Corn,  so  as  to  have   food   for   the  negroes  if  the  war  lasts, 
without  any  distress  from  inland  or  sea  blockade.     The  ab 
surdity  of  supposing  that  blockade  can  injure  them  in  the 
way  of  supply  is  a  favorite   theme  to  descant  upon.     They 
may  find  out,  however,  that  it  is  no  contemptible  means  of 
warfare.     At    night,   after    our    return,  a  large   bonfire  was 
lighted  on  the  bank  to  attract   the   steamer   to  call  for  my 
luggage,  which  she  was  to   leave   at  a  point  on  the  opposite 
shore,  fourteen  miles  higher  up,  and  I  perceived   that  there 
are  regular  patrols  and   watchmen  at  night  who  look  after 
levees  and  the  negroes ;  a  number  of  dogs  are   also  loosed, 
but  I  am  assured   by  a  gentleman,   who   has  written  me  a 
long  letter  on  the  subject  from  Montgomery,  that  these  dogs 
do  not  tear   the  negroes  ;  they  are   taught   merely  to   catch 
and  mumble  them,  to  treat  them  as  a  retriever   well  broken 
uses  a  wild  duck.     Next  day  1  left  the  hospitable  house  of 
Governor  Roman,  full  of  regard  for  his   personal   character 
and  of  wishes  for  his  happiness  and  prosperity,  but  assured 
ly  in  no  degree  satisfied  that  even  with  his  care  and   kind 
ness  even  the  "  domestic  institution  "   can  be  rendered  tol 
erable  or  defensible,  if  it  be  once   conceded   that  the  negro 
is  a  human  being  with  a  soul  —  or  with   the    feelings   of  a 
man.      On  those  points  there  are  ingenious  hypotheses  and 
subtle  argumentations   in   print  "  down   South,"  which  do 
much  to  comfort  the  consciences  of  the  anthropoproprietors. 
The  negro  skull  won't  hold  as   many  ounces  as  that  of  the 
white  man's.     Can   there  be  a  more  potent  proof  that  the 
white  man  has  a  right  to   sell  and   to   own  a  creature  who 
carries  a  smaller  charge  of  snipe  dust  in  his  head  ?     He  is 
plantigrade  and  curved  as  to  the  tibia  !     Cogent  demonstra 
tion  that  he  was  made  expressly  to  work  for  the  arch-footed, 
straight-tibia'd    Caucasian.     He  has  a  rete  mucosum  and  a 
colored  pigment.     Surely  he  cannot  have  a  soul  of  the  same 
color  as  that  of  an  Italian  or  a  Spaniard,  far  less  of  a  flaxen- 
haired  Saxon  !     See   these  peculiarities   in  the  frontal  sinus 
—  in  sinciput  or  occiput !     Can    you  doubt  that    the    being 
with  a  head  of  that  nature  was  made   only  to  till,  hoe,  and 
dig  for  another  race  ?     Besides  the    Bible  says  that  he  is  a 
son  of  Ham,  and  prophecy  must  be   carried   out  in  the  rice 
swamps,  sugar  canes,  and  maize-fields  of  the  Southern  Con 
federation.     It's  flat  blasphemy  to  set  yourself  against  it. 
Our    Saviour  sanctions  Slavery  because  he    does    not    say 


156  THE    CIVIL    ^AR    IN    AMERICA. 

a  word  against  it,  and  it's  very  likely  that  St.  Paul  was  a 
slave-owner.  Had  cotton  and  sugar  been  known-^  he  might 
have  been  a  planter !  Besides,  the  negro  is  civilized 
by  being  carried  away  from  Africa  and  set  to  work,  instead 
of  idling  in  native  inutility.  What  hope  is  there  of 
Christianizing  the  African  races  except  by  the  agency  of  the 
apostles  from  New  Orleans,  Mobile,  or  Charleston,  who  sing 
the  sweet  songs  of  Zion  with  such  vehemence,  and  clamor 
so  fervently  for  baptism  in  the  waters  of  the  "  Jawdam  ?  " 
If  these  high,  physical,  metaphysical,  moral  and  religious 
reasonings  do  not  satisfy  you,  and  you  venture  to  be  uncon 
vinced  and  to  say  so,  then  I  advise  you  not  to  come  within 
reach  of  a  mass  meeting  of  our  citizens,  who  may  be  able 
to  find  a  rope  and  a  tree  in  the  neighborhood. 

As  we  jog  along  in  an  easy-rolling  carriage  drawn  by  a 
pair  of  stout  horses,  a  number  of  white  people  met  us  com 
ing  from  the  Catholic  chapel  of  the  parish,  where  they  had 
been  attending  a  service  for  the  repose  of  the  soul  of  a  lady 
much  beloved  in  the  neighborhood.  The  black  people  are 
supposed  to  have  very  happy  souls,  or  to  be  as  utterly  lost 
as  Mr.  Shandy's  homuncule  was  under  certain  circumstances, 
for  I  have  failed  to  find  that  any  such  services  are  ever  con 
sidered  necessary  in  their  case,  although  they  may  have  been 
very  good  —  or-where  it  would  be  most  desirable  —  very  bad 
Catholics.  My  good  young  friend,  clever,  amiable,  accom 
plished,  who  had  a  dark  cloud  of  sorrow  weighing  down  his 
young  life,  that  softened  him  to  almost  feminine  tenderness, 
saw  none  of  these  things.  He  talked  of  foreign  travel  in 
days  gone  by  —  of  Paris  and  poetry,  of  England  and  Lon 
don  hotels,  of  the  great  Careme,  and  of  poor  Alexis  Soyer, 
of  pictures,  of  politics  —  de  omne  scibili.  The  storm  gathered 
overhead,  and  the  rain  fell  in  torents  — -  the  Mississippi 
flowed  lifelessly  by  —  not  a  boat  on  its  broad  surface.  The 
road  passed  by  plantations  smaller  and  poorer  than  I  have 
yet  seen  belonging  to  small  planters,  with  only  some  ten  or 
twelve  slaves,  all  told.  The  houses  were  poor  and  ragged. 
At  last  we  reached  Governor  Manning's  place,  and  drove  to 
the  overseer's  —  a  large,  heavy-eyed  old  man,  who  asked  us 
into  his  house  from  out  of  the  rain  till  the  boat  was  ready 
—  and  the  river  did  not  look  inviting  —  full  of  drift  trees, 
swirls,  and  mighty  eddies.  In  the  plain  room  in  which  we 
sat  there  was  a  volume  of  Spurgeon's  Sermons  and  Baxter's 
works.  "  This  rain  will  do  good  to  our  corn,"  said  the  over 
seer.  "  The  niggers  has  had  sceerce  nothin'  to  do  leetly,  as 


THE    CIVIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA.  157 

they  'eve  cleaned  out  the  fields  pretty  well."  We  drove 
down  to  a  poor  shed  on  the  levee  called  the  Ferry-house, 
attended  by  one  stout,  young  slave  who  was  to  row  me  over. 
Two  flat-bottomed  skiffs  lay  on  the  bank.  The  negro  groped 
under  the  shed,  and  pulled  out  a  piece  of  wood  like  a  large 
spatula,  some  four  feet  long,  and  a  small,  round  pole  a  little 
longer.  "  What  are  those?  "  quoth  I,  "  Dem's  oars,  Massa," 
was  my  sable  ferryman's  brisk  reply.  "  I'm  very  sure  they 
are  not ;  if  they  were  spliced  they  might  make  an  oar  between 
them."  "  Golly,  and  dat's  the  trute,  Massa."  "  There,  go 
and  get  oars,  will  you  ?  "  While  he  was  hunting  about  we 
entered  the  shed  for  shelter  from  the  rain.  We  found  "  a 
solitary  woman  sitting  "  smoking  a  pipe  by  the  ashes  on  the 
hearth,  blear-eyed,  low-browed,  and  morose  —  young  as  she 
was.  She  never  said  a  word  nor  moved  as  we  came  in,  sat 
and  smoked,  and  looked  through  her  gummy  eyes  at  chickens 
about  the  size  of  sparrows,  and  at  a  cat  no  larger  than  a  rat, 
which  ran  about  on  the  dirty  floor.  A  little  girl  some  four 
years  of  age,  not  over-dressed  —  indeed,  half-naked,  "  not  to 
put  too  fine  a  point  upon  it"  —  crawled  out  from  under  the 
bed,  where  she  had  hid  on  our  approach.  As  she  seemed 
incapable  of  appreciating  the  uses  of  a  small  piece  of  silver 
presented  to  her  —  having  no  precise  ideas  on  coinage  or 
toffy  —  her  parent  took  the  obolus  in  charge  with  unmis 
takable  decision ;  but,  still,  she  would  not  stir  a  step  to  aid 
our  Charon,  who  now  insisted  on  the  "  key  ov  de  oar-house." 
The  little  thing  sidled  off  and  hunted  it  out  from  the  top  of 
the  bedstead,  and  I  was  not  sorry  to  quit  the  company  of  the 
silent  woman  in  black.  Charon  pushed  his  skiff  into  the 
water  —  there  was  a  good  deal  of  rain  in  it  —  in  shape  a 
snuffer-dish,  some  ten  feet  long  and  a  foot  deep.  I  got  in 
and  the  conscious  waters  immediately  began  vigorously  spurt 
ing  through  the  cotton  wadding  wherewith  the  craft  was 
caulked.  Had  we  gone  out  into  the  stream  we  should  have 
had  a  swim  for  it,  and  they  do  say  that  the  Mississippi  is  the 
most  dangerous  river  for  that  healthful  exercise  in  the  known 
world.  "  Why,  deuce  take  you  "  (I  said  at  least  that,  in  my 
wrath),  "  don't  you  see  that  the  boat  is  leaky  ?  "  "  See  it 
now  for  true,  Massa.  Nobody  able  to  tell  dat  till  Massa  get 
in,  tho'."  Another  skiff  proved  to  be  stanch.  I  bade  good 
bye  to  my  friend,  and  sat  down  in  my  boat,  which  was  soon 
forced  up  along  the  stream  close  to  the  bank,  in  order  to  get 
a  good  start  across  to  the  other  side.  The  view,  from  my 
lonely  position,  was  curious,  but  not  at  all  picturesque.  The 
14 


158  THE    CIVIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA. 

landscape  had  disappeared  at  once.  The  world  was  bounded 
on  both  sides  by  a  high  bank,  and  was  constituted  by  a  broad 
river  —  just  as  if  one  were  sailing  down  an  open  sewer  of 
enormous  length  and  breadth.  Above  the  bank  rose,  how 
ever,  the  tops  of  tall  trees  and  the  chihaneys  of  sugar-houses. 
A  row  of  a  quarter  of  an  hour  brought  us  to  the  levee  on  the 
other  side.  I  ascended  the  bank  and  directly  in  front  of  me, 
across  the  road,  appeared  a  carriage  gateway,  and  wickets  of 
wood,  painted  white,  in  a  line  of  park  palings  of  the  same 
material,  which  extended  up  and  down  the  road  as  far  as  the 
eye  could  follow,  and  guarded  wide-spread  fields  of  maize 
and  sugar-cane.  An  avenue  of  trees,  with  branches  close 
set,  drooping  and  overarching  a  walk  paved  with  red  brick, 
led  to  the  house,  the  porch  of  which  was  just  visible  at 
the  extremity  of  the  lawn,  with  clustering  flowers,  rose,  jes 
samine,  and  creepers  clinging  to  the  pillars  supporting  the 
verandah.  The  proprietor,  who  had  espied  my  approach, 
issued  forth  with  a  section  of  sable  attendants  in  his  rear, 
and  gave  me  a  hearty  welcome.  The  house  was  larger  and 
better  than  the  residences  even  of  the  richest  planters,  though 
it  was  in  need  of  some  little  repair,  and  had  been  built  per 
haps  fifty  years  ago,  but  it  had  belonged  to  a  wealthy  family > 
who  lived  in  the  good  old  Irish  fashion,  and  who  built  well, 
ate  well,  drank  well,  and  —  finally,  paid  very  well.  The  view 
from  the  Belvedere  was  one  of  the  most  striking  of  its  kind 
in  the  world.  If  an  English  agriculturist  could  see  6,000 
acres  of  the  finest  land  in  one  field,  unbroken  by  hedge  or 
boundary,  and  covered  with  the  most  magnificent  crops  of 
tasselling  Indian  corn  and  sprouting  sugar-cane,  as  level  as 
a  billiard  table,  he  would  surely  doubt  his  senses.  But  here 
is  literally  such  a  sight.  Six  thousand  acres,  better  tilled 
than  the  finest  patch  in  all  the  Lothians,  green  as  Meath 
pastures,  which  can  be  cultivated  for  a  hundred  years  to 
come  without  requiring  manure,  of  depth  practically  unlim 
ited,  and  yielding  an  average  profit  on  what  is  sold  off'  it 
of  at  least  £20  an  acre  at  the  old  prices  and  usual  yield 
of  sugar.  Rising  up  in  the  midst  of  the  verdure  are  th« 
white  lines  of  the  negro  cottages  and  the  plantation  offices 
and  sugar-houses,  which  look  like  large  public  edifices 
in  the  distance.  And  who  is  the  lord  of  all  this  fair 
domain  ?  The  proprietor  of  Houmas  and  Orange-grove  is  a 
man,  a  self-made  one,  who  has  attained  his  apogee  on  the 
bright  side  of  half  a  century,  after  twenty-five  years  of  suc 
cessful  business. 


THE    CIVIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA.  159 

When  my  eyes  "  uncurtained  the  early  morning  "  I  might 
have  imagined  myself  in  the  magic  garden  of  Cherry  and 
Fair  Star,  so  incessant  and  multifarious  were  the  carols  ol" 
the  birds,  which  were  the  only  happy  colored  people  I  saw 
in  my  Southern  tour,  notwithstanding  the  assurances  of  the 
many  ingenious  and  candid  gentlemen  who  attempted  to 
prove  to  me  that  the  palm  of  terrestrial  felicity  must  be 
awarded  to  their  negroes.  As  I  stepped  through  my  window 
upon  the  verandah,  a  sharp  chirp  called  my  attention  to  a 
mocking-bird  perched  upon  a  rose-bush  beneath,  whom  my 
presence  seemed  to  annoy  to  such  a  degree  that  I  retreated 
behind  my  curtain,  whence  I  observed  her  flight  to  a  nest 
cunningly  hid  in  a  creeping  rose  trailed  around  a  neighboring 
column  of  the  house,  where  she  imparted  a  breakfast  of 
spiders  and  grasshoppers  to  her  gaping  and  clamorous  off 
spring.  While  I  was  admiring  the  motherly  grace  of  this 
melodious  flycatcher,  a  servant  brought  coffee,  and  an 
nounced  that  the  horses  were  ready,  and  that  I  might  have 
a  three-hours'  ride  before  breakfast.  At  Houmas  les  jours 
se  suivent  >tt  se  ressemblent,  and  an  epitome  of  the  first  will 
serve  as  a  type  for  all,  with  the  exception  of  such  variations 
in  the  kitchen  and  cellar  produce  as  the  ingenuity  and  ex- 
haustless  hospitality  of  my  host  were  never  tired  of  framing. 

If  I  regretted  the  absence  of  our  English  agriculturist  when 
I  beheld  the  6,000  acres  of  cane  and  1,600  of  maize  unfolded 
from  the  Belvedere  the  day  previous,  I  longed  for  his  pre 
sence  still  more,  when  I  saw  those  evidences  of  luxuriant 
fertility  attained  without  the  aid  of  phosphates  or  guano. 
The  rich  Mississippi  bottoms  need  no  manure,  a  rotation  of 
maize  with  cane  affords  them  the  necessary  recuperative 
action.  The  cane  of  last  year's  plant  is  left  in  stubble,  and 
renews  its  growth  this  spring  under  the  title  of  ratoons. 
When  the  maize  is  in  tassel,  cow-peas  are  dropped  between 
the  rows,  and  when  the  lordly  stalk,  of  which  I  measured 
many  twelve  and  even  fifteen  feet  in  height  —  bearing  three 
and  sometimes  four  ears  —  is  topped  to  admit  the  ripening  sun, 
the  pea  vine  twines  itself  around  the  trunk,  with  a  profusion  of 
leaf  and  tendril  that  supplies  the  planter  with  the  most  desir 
able  fodder  for  his  mules  in  "  rolling  time,"  which  is  their 
season  of  trial.  Besides  this,  the  corn  blades  are  culled  and 
cured.  These  are  the  best  meals  of  the  Southern  race-horse, 
and  constitute  nutritious  hay  without  dust.  The  cow-pea  is 
said  to  strengthen  the  system  of  the  earth  for  the  digestion 
of  a  new  crop  of  sugar-cane.  A  sufficient  quantity  of  the 


160  THE    CIY1L    WAR    IN    AMEBICA. 

cane  of  last  season  is  reserved  from  the  mill  and  laid  in  pits, 
where  the  ends  of  the  stalk  are  carefully  closed  with  earth  ' 
until  spring.  After  the  ground  has  been  ploughed  into 
ridges  these  canes  are  laid  in  the  endless  tumuli,  and  not 
long  after  their  interment  a  fresh  sprout  springs  at  each 
joint  of  these  interminable  flutes. 

As  we  ride  through  the  wagon  roads,  of  which  there  are 
not  less  than  thirty  miles  in  this  confederation  of  four  plan 
tations,  held  together  by  the  purse  and  the  life  of  our  host, 
the  unwavering  exactitude  of  the  rows  of  cane,  which  run 
without  deviation  at  right  angles  with  the  river  down  to  the 
cane-brake,  two  miles  off,  proves  that  the  negro  would  be  a 
formidable  rival  in  a  plowing  match.  The  cane  has  been 
"laid  by"  —  that  is,  it  requires  no  more  labor  —  and  will 
41  lap,"  or  close  up,  though  the  rows  are  seven  feet  apart.  It 
feathers  like  a  palm  top  ;  a  stalk  which  was  cut  measured  six 
feet,  although  from  the  ridges  it  was  but  waist  high.  On 
dissecting  it  near  the  root,  we  find  five  nascent  joints,  not  a 
quarter  of  an  inch  apart.  In  a  few  weeks  more  these  will 
shoot  up  like  a  spy-glass  pulled  out  to  its  focus. 

There  are  four  lordly  sugar-houses,  as  the  grinding  mills  and 
boiling  and  crystalizing  buildings  are  called,  and  near  each  is 
to  be  found  the  negro  village,  or  "  quarter,"  of  that  section  of 
the  plantation.  A  wide  avenue,  generally  lined  with  trees, 
runs  through  these  hamlets,  which  consist  of  twenty  or  thirty 
white  cottages,  single  storied  and  divided  into  four  rooms. 
They  are  whitewashed,  and  at  no  great  distance  might  be 
mistaken  for  New  England  villages,  with  a  town-hall  which 
often  serves  in  the  latter  for  a  "  meeting-house,"  with,  occa 
sionally,  a  row  of  stores  on  the  ground  floor. 

The  people,  or  "  hands,"  are  in  the  field,  and  the  only 
inhabitants  of  the  settlements  are  scores  of  "  picaninnies," 
who  seem  a  jolly  congregation,  under  the  care  of  crones,  who 
here,  as  in  an  Indian  village,  act  as  nurses  to  the  rising  gen 
eration  destined  from  their  births  to  the  limits  of  a  social 
Procrustean  bed.  The  increase  of  property  on  the  estate  is 
about  5  per  cent,  per  annum  by  the  birth  of  children. 

We  ride  an  hour  before  coming  upon  any  "  hands  "  at 
work  in  the  fields.  There  is  an  air  of  fertile  desolation  that 
prevails  in  no  other  cultivated  land.  The  regularity  of  the 
cane,  its  garden-like  freedom  from  grass  or  weeds,  and  the 
ad  unguem  finish  and  evenness  of  the  furrows  would  seem 
the  work  of  nocturnal  fairies,  did  we  not  realize  the  sys 
tem  of  "gang-labor"  exemplified  in  a  field  we  at  length 


THE    CIVIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA.  161 

reach,  where  some  thirty  men  and  women  were  giving  with 
the  hoe  the  last  polish  to  the  earth  around  the  cane,  which 
would  not  be  molested  again  until  gathered  for  the  autumnal 
banquet  of  the  rolling-mills. 

Small  drains  and  larger  ditches  occur  at  almost  every  step. 
All  these  flow  into  a  channel,  some  fifteen  feet  wide,  which 
runs  between  the  plantations  and  the  uncleared  forest,  and 
carries  off  the  water  to  a  "  bayou"  still  more  remote.  There 
are  twenty  miles  of  deep  ditching  before  the  plantation, 
exclusive  of  the  canal,  and  as  this  is  the  contract  work  of 
"  Irish  navvies,"  the  sigh  with  which  our  host  alluded  to 
this  heavy  item  in  plantation  expenses,  was  expressive.  The 
work  is  too  severe  for  African  thews,  and  experience  has 
shown  it  a  bad  economy  to  overtask  the  slave.  The  sugar- 
planter  lives  in  apprehension  of  four  enemies.  These  are 
the  river  when  rising,  drought,  too  much  or  unseasonable 
rain,  and  frost.  The  last  calls  into  play  all  his  energies,  and 
tasks  his  utmost  composure.  In  Louisiana  the  cane  never 
ripens  as  it  does  in  Cuba,  and  they  begin  to  grind  as  early 
in  October  as  the  amount  of  juices  will  permit.  The  ques 
tion  of  a  crop  is  one  of  early  or  late  frost.  With  two  months' 
exemption  they  rely,  in  a  fair  season,  upon  a  hogshead  of 
1,200  pounds  to  the  acre,  and  if  they  can  run  their  mills 
until  January,  the  increase  is  more  than  proportionate,  each 
of  its  latter  days  in  the  earth  adding  saccharine  virtue  to  the 
cane. 

At  an  average  of  a  hogshead  to  the  acre,  each  working 
hand  is  good  for  seven  hogsheads  a  year,  which,  at  last 
year's  prices,  8  cents  per  pound  for  ordinary  qualities,  would 
be  a  yield  of  £140  per  annum  for  each  full  field  hand. 

Two  hogsheads  to  the  acre  are  not  unfrequently,  and  even 
three  have  been,  produced  upon  rich  lands  in  a  good  season. 
Estimating  the  sugar  at  70  per  cent.,  and  the  refuse,  bagasse, 
at  30  per  cent.,  the  latter  would  give  us  two  tuns  and  a 
quarter  to  the  acre,  which  open  one's  eyes  to  the  tireless 
activity  of  nature  in  this  semi-tropical  region. 

From  the  records  of  Houmas  I  find  that,  in  1857,  the 
year  of  its  purshase  at  about  £300,000,  it  yielded  a  gross  of 
$304,000,  say  £63,000,  upon  the  investment. 

In  the  rear  of  this  great  plantation  there  are  18,000  ad 
ditional  acres  of  cane-brake  which  are  being  slowly  reclaim 
ed,  like  the  fields  now  rejoicing  in  crops,  as  fast  as  the 
furnace  of  the  sugar-house  calls  for  fuel.  Were  it  desirable 
to  accelerate  the  preparation  of  this  reserve  for  planting,  it 
14* 


162  THE    CIVIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA. 

might  be  put  in  tolerable  order  in  three  years  at-  a  cost  of 
£15  per  acre.  We  extended  our  ride  into  this  jungle  on 
the  borders  of  which,  in  the  unfinished  clearing,  I  saw  plan 
tations  of  "  negro  corn,"  the  sable  cultivators  of  which 
seem  to  have  disregarded  the  symmetry  practised  in  the  fields 
of  their  master,  who  allows  them  from  Saturday  noon  until 
Monday's  cockcrow  for  the  care  of  their  private  interests, 
and  in  addition  to  this,  whatever  hours  in  the  week  they  can 
economize  by  the  brisk  fulfilment  of  their  allotted  tasks. 
Some  of  these  patches  are  sown  broadcast,  and  the  corn  has 
sprung  up  like  Zouave  tirailleurs  in  their  most  fantastic 
vagaries,  rather  than  like  the  steady  regimental  drill  of  the 
cane  and  maize  we  have  been  traversing. 

Corn,  chickens,  and  eggs,  are  from  time  immemorial  the 
perquisites  of  the  negro,  who  has  the  monopoly  of  the  two 
last  named  articles  in  all  well  ordered  Louisiana  plantations. 
Indeed,  the  white  man  cannot  compete  with  them  in  raising 
poultry,  and  our  host  was  evidently  delighted  when  one  of 
his  negroes,  who  had  brought  a  dozen  Muscovy  ducks  to  the 
mansion,  refused  to  sell  them  to  him  except  for  cash.  "  But 
Louis,  won't  you  trust  me  ?  Am  I  not  good  for  three 
dollars  ?"  u  Good  enough,  Massa  ;  but  dis  nigger  want  de 
money  to  buy  flour  and  coffee  for  him  young  family.  Folks 
at  Donaldsonville  will  trust  Massa  —  won't  trust  nigger." 
The  money  was  paid,  and,  as  the  negro  left  us,  his  master 
observed,  with  a  sly,  humorous  twinkle,  "  That  fellow  sold 
forty  dollars  worth  of  corn  last  year,  and  all  of  them  feed 
their  chickens  with  my  corn,  and  sell  their  own." 

There  are  three  overseers  at  Houmas,  one  of  whom  super 
intends  the  whole  plantation,  and  likewise  looks  after  another 
estate  of  8,000  acres,  some  twelve  miles  down  the  river,  which 
our  host  added  to  his  possession  two  years  since,  at  a  cost 
of  £150,000.  In  any  part  of  the  world,  and  in  any  calling, 

Mr.  S (I  do  not  know  if  he  would  like  to  see  his  name 

in  print)  would  be  considered  an  able  man.  Mr.  S.  attends 
to  most  of  the  practice  requiring  immediate  attention.  We 
visited  one  of  those  hospitals,  and  found  half  a  dozen 
patients  ill  of  fever,  rheumatism,  and  indigestion,  and  appa 
rently  well  cared  for  by  a  couple  of  stout  nurses.  The 
truckle  bedsteads  were  garnished  with  mosquito  bars,  and  I 
'was  told  that  the  hospital  is  a  favorite  resort,  which  its  in 
mates  leave  with  reluctance.  The  pharmaceutical  depart- 
'ment  was  largely  supplied  with  a  variety  of  medicines, 
quinine  and  preparations  of  sulphites  of  iron.  "  Poor  drugs," 
said  Mr.  S.,  "  are  a  poor  economy." 


THE    CIVIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA.  163 

I  have  mentioned  engineering  as  one  of  the  requisites  of 
a  competent  overseer.  To  explain  this  I  must  observe  that 
Houmas  is  esteemed  very  high  land,  and  that  in  its  cultivated 
breadth  there  is  only  a  fall  of  eight  feet  to  carry  off  its 
surplus  water.  In  the  plantation  of  Governor  Manning, 
which  adjoins  it,  an  expensive  steam  draining  machine  is 
employed  to  relieve  his  fields  of  this  encumbrance,  which  is 
effected  by  the  revolutions  of  a  fan- wheel  some  twenty  feet 
in  diameter,  which  laps  up  the  water  from  a  narrow  trough 
into  which  all  the  drainage  flows,  and  tosses  it  into  an  ad 
joining  bayou. 

On  Governor  Manning's  plantation  we  saw  the  process  of 
clearing  the  primitive  forest,  of  which  150  acres  were 
sown  in  corn  and  cotton  beneath  the  tall  girdled  trees  that 
awaited  the  axe,  while  an  equal  breadth  on  the  other  side  of 
a  broad  and  deep  canal  was  reluctantly  yielding  its  tufted 
and  fibrous  soil,  from  which  the  jungle  had  just  been  re 
moved,  to  the  ploughs  of  some  fifty  negroes,  drawn  by  two 
mules  each.  Another  season  of  lustration  by  maize  or 
co.tton,  and  the  rank  soil  will  be  ready  for  the  cane. 

The  cultivation  of  sugar  differs  from  that  of  cotton  in 
requiring  a  -much  larger  outlay  of  capital.  There  is  little  re 
quired  for  the  latter  besides  negroes  and  land,  which  may  be 
bought  on  credit,  and  a  year's  clothing  and  provisions. 
There  is  a  gambling  spice  in  the  chances  of  a  season  which 
may  bring  wealth  or  ruin  —  a  bale  to  the  acre,  which  may 
produce  Id.  per  pound.  In  a  fair  year  the  cotton  planter 
reckons  upon  ten  or  twelve  bales  to  the  hand,  in  which  case 
the  annual  yield  of  a  negro  varies  from  £90  to  £120.  His 
enemies  are  drought,  excessive  rains,  the  ball  worm,  and  the 
army  worm  ;  his  best  friend  "  a  long  picking  season." 

There  is  more  steadiness  in  the  price  of  sugar,  and  a 
greater  certainty  of  an  average  crop.  But  the  cost  of  a 
sugar-house,  with  its  mill,  boilers,  vacuum  pans,  centrifugal 
and  drying  apparatus,  cannot  be  less  than  £10,000,  and  the 
consumption  of  fuel  —  thousands  of  cords  of  which  are  cut 
by  the  '*  hands"  —  is  enormous.  There  were  cases  of  large 
fortunes  earned  by  planting  sugar  with  large  beginnings,  but 
these  had  chiefly  occurred  among  early  settlers,  who  had 
obtained  their  lands  for  a  song.  A  Creole,  who  recently 
died  at  the  age  of  fifty-five,  in  the  neigborhood,  and  who  began 
with  only  a  few  thousand  dollars,  had  amassed  more  than 
$1,000,000  in  twenty-five  years,  and  two  of  his  sons — skilful 
planters  —  were  likely  to  die  each  richer  than  his  father. 


164  THE    CIVIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA. 

This  year  the  prospects  of  sugar  are  dreary  enough,  at 
least  while  the  civil  war  lasts,  and  my  host,  with  a  certainty 
of  6,500  hogsheads  upon  his  various  plantations,  has  none  of 
a  market.  In  this  respect  cotton  has  the  advantage  of 
keeping  longer  than  sugar.  At  last  year's  prices,  and  with 
the  United  States  protective  tariff  of  20  per  cent  to  shield 
him  from  foreign  competition,  his  crop  would  have  yielded 
him  over  £100,000.  But  all  the  sweet  teeth  of  the  Con 
federate  States  army  can  hardly  "  make  a  hole  "  in  the 
450,000  hogsheads  which  this  year  is  expected  to  yield  in 
Louisiana  and  Texas.  Under  the  new  tariff  of  the  Seceding 
States  the  loss  of  protection  to  Louisiana  alone  may  be 
stated,  within  bounds,  at  $8,000,000  per  annum —  which  is 
making  the  planters  pay  pretty  dear  for  their  Secession 
whistle. 

When  I  arrived  at  Houmas  there  was  the  greatest  anxiety 
for  rain,  and  over  the  vast,  level  plateau  every  cloud  was 
scanned  with  avidity.  Now,  a  shower  seemed  bearing  right 
down  upon  us,  when  it  would  break,  like  a  flying  soap- 
bubble,  and  scatter  its  treasures  short  of  the  parched  fields  in 
which  we  felt  interested.  The  wind  shifted  and  hopes  were 
raised  that  the  next  thunder-cloud  would  prove  less  illusory. 
But  no  !  "  Kenner  "  has  got  it  all.  On  the  fifth  day,  how 
ever,  the  hearts  of  all  the  planters  and  their  parched  fields 
were  gladdened  by  half  a  day  of  general  and  generous  rain, 
beneath  which  our  host's  cane  fairly  reeled  and  reveled.  It 
was  now  safe  for  the  season,  and  so  was  the  corn.  But 
"  one  man's  meat  is  another's  poison,"  and  we  heard  more 
than  one  "  Jeremiad  "  from  those  whose  fields  had  not  been 
placed  in  the  condition  which  enabled  those  of  our  friend  to 
carry  off  a  potation  of  twelve  hours  of  tropical  rain  with  the 
ease  of  an  alderman  or  a  Lord  Chancellor  made  happier  or 
wiser  by  his  three  bottles  of  port. 

What  is  termed  hacienda  in  Cuba,  rancho  in  Mexico,  and 
"  plantation"  elsewhere,  is  styled  "  habitation  "  by  the 
Creoles  of  Louisiana,  whose  ancestors  began  more  than  a 
century  ago  to  reclaim  its  jungles 

At  lest  "  venit  summa  dies  et  inetuctabile  tempus.'"*  I  had 
seen  as  much  as  might  be  of  the  best  phase  of  the  great  in 
stitution  —  less  than  I  could  desire  of  a  most  exemplary, 
kind-hearted,  clear-headed,  honest  man.  In  the  calm  of  a 
glorious  summer  evening,  arrayed  in  all  the  splendor  of 
scenery  that  belongs  to  dramas  in  Cloudland,  where  moun 
tains  of  snow,  peopled  by  "  gorgons,  and  hydras,  and 


THE    CIVIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA.  165 

chimaeras  dire,"  rise  from  seas  of  fire  that  bear  black  barks, 
freighted  with  thunder,  before  the  breeze  of  battle,  we 
crossed  the  Father  of  Waters,  waving  an  adieu  to  the  good 
friend  who  stood  on  the  shore,  and  turning  our  back  to  the 
home  we  had  left  behind  us. 

It  was  dark  when  the  boat  reached  Donaldsonville,  on  the 
opposite  "  coast."  I  should  not  be  surprised  to  hear  that 
the  founder  of  this  remarkable  city,  which  once  contained 
the  archives  of  the  State,  now  transferred  to  Baton  Rouge, 
was  a  North  Briton,  There  is  a  simplicity  and  economy  in 
the  plan  of  the  place  not  unfavorable  to  that  view,  but  the 
motives  which  induced  the  Donaldson  to  found  his  Rome  on 
the  west  of  Bayou  La  Fourche  from  Mississippi  must  be  a 
secret  to  all  time.  Much  must  the  worthy  Scot  have  been 
perplexed  by  his  neighbors,  a  long-reaching  colony  of  Span 
ish  Creoles,  who  toil  not  and  spin  nothing  but  fishing-nets, 
and  who  live  better  than  Solomon,  and  are  probably  as  well 
dressed,  minus  the  barbaric  pearl  and  gold  of  the  Hebrew 
potentate.  Take  the  odd  little,  retiring,  modest  houses 
which  grow  in  the  hollows  of  Scarborough,  add  to  them  the 
least  imposing  mansions  in  the  natural  town  of  Folkestone, 
cast  them  broadsown  over  the  surface  of  the  Essex  marshes, 
plant  a  few  trees  in  front  of  them,  then  open  a  few  "  Cafe 
billiards  "  of  the  camp  sort  along  the  main  street,  and  you 
have  done  a  very  good  Donaldsonville.  A  policeman  wel 
comes  us  on  landing,  and  does  the  honors  of  the  market, 
which  has  a  beggarly  account  of  empty  benches,  the  Texan 
bull  done  into  beef,  and  a  coffee-shop.  The  policeman  is  a 
tall,  lean,  west  country  man  ;  his  story  is  simple,  and  he  has 
it  to  tell.  He  was  one  of  Dan  Rice's  company  —  a  travel 
ing  Astley.  He  came  to  Donaldsonville,  saw,  and  was 
conquered  by  one  of  the  Spanish  beauties,  married  her,  be 
came  tavern  keeper,  failed,  learned  French,  and  was  now 
constable  of  the  parish.  There  was,  however,  a  weight  on 
his  mind.  He  had  studied  the  matter  profoundly,  but  he 
was  not  near  the  bottom.  How  did  the  friends,  relatives, 
and  tribe  of  his  wife  live  ?  No  one  could  say.  They  reared 
chickens,  and  they  caught  fish ;  when  there  was  a  pressure 
on  the  planters,  they  turned  out  to  work  for  6s.  6d.  a  day, 
but  those  were  rare  occasions.  The  policeman  had  become 
quite  gray  with  excogitating  the  matter,  and  he  had  "  nary 
notion  of  how  they  did  it."  Donaldsonville  has  done  one 
fine  thing.  It  has  furnished  two  companies  of  soldiers  — 
all  Irishmen  —  to  the  wars,  and  a  third  is  in  the  course  of 


166  THE    CIVIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA. 

formation.  Not  much  hedging,  ditching,  or  hard  work 
these  times  for  Paddy  ?  The  blacksmith,  a  huge  tower  of 
muscle,  claims  exemption  on  the  ground  that  "  the  divil  a 
bit  of  him  comes  from  Oireland  ;  he  nivir  hird  av  it,  barrin' 
from  the  buks  he  rid,"  and  is  doing  his  best  to  remain  be 
hind,  but  popular  opinion  is  against  him.  As  the  steamer 
would  not  be  up  till  toward  dawn,  or  later,  it  was  a  relief  to 
saunter  through  Donaldsonville  to  see  society,  which  con 
sisted  of  several  gentlemen  and  various  Jews  playing  games 
unknown  to  Hoyle,  in  oaken  bar-rooms  flanked  by  billiard 
tables.  My  good  friend  the  doctor,  whom  I  had  met  at 
Houmas,  who  had  crossed  the  river  fo  see  patients  suffering 
from  an  attack  of  Euchre,  took  us  round  to  a  little  club, 
where  I  was  introduced  to  a  number  of  gentlemen,  who  ex 
pressed  great  pleasure  at  seeing  me,  shook  hands  violently, 
and  walked  away ;  and  finally  we  melted  off  into  a  cloud  of 
mosquitoes  by  the  river  bank,  in  a  box  prepared  for  them, 
which  was  called  a  bedroom.  These  rooms  were  built  in 
wood  on  the  stage  close  to  the  river.  "  Why  can't  I  have 
one  of  these  rooms?"  asked  I,  pointing  to  a  larger  mosqui 
to-box.  "  It's  engaged  by  ladies."  "  How  do  you  know  ?  " 
"  Parceque  elles  ont  envoyes  leur  but.in"  It  was  delicious 
to  meet  the  French  "  plunder"  for  baggage  —  an  old  phrase 
so  nicely  rendered  in  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi  boatman. 
Having  passed  a  night  of  extreme  discomfiture  with  the 
winged  demons  of  the  box,  I  was  aroused  toward  dawn  by 
the  booming  of  the  steam  drum  of  the  boat,  dipped  my  head 
in  water  among  drowned  mosquitoes,  and  went  forth  upon 
the  landing.  The  policeman  had  just  arrived.  His  eagle 
eye  lighted  on  a  large  flat,  on  the  stern  of  which  was  in 
scribed,  "  Pork,  corn,  butter,  beef,"  &c.  Several  spry  citi 
zens  were  also  on  the  platform;  After  salutations  and  com 
pliments,  policeman  speaks  :  "  When  did  she  come  in  ?  " 
(meaning  flat).  First  Citizen  —  "In  the  night,  I  guess." 
Second  Citizen  —  "There's  a  lot  of  whiskey  aboard,  too." 
Policeman  (with  pleased  surprise)  —  "  You  never  mean  it  ?  " 
First  Citizen  —  "  Yes,  Sir  ;  one  hundred  and  twenty  gal 
lons  !  "  Policeman  (inspired  by  a  bright  aspiration  of  pa 
triotism)  —  "  It's  a  West  country  boat ;  why  don't  the  citi 
zens  seize  it?  And  whiskey  rising  from  17  cents  to  35  cents 
a  gallon!  "  Citizens  murmur  approval,  and  I  feel  the  whis 
key  part  of  the  cargo  is  not  safe.  "  Yes,  Sir,"  says  Citizen 
Three,  "  they  seize  all  our  property  at  Cairey  (Cairo),  and 
I'm  for  making  an  example  of  this  cargo."  Further  reasons 


THE    CIVIL    WAR   IN    AMERICA.  167 

for  the  seizure  of  the  article  were  adduced,  and  it  is  probable 
they  were  as  strong  as  the  whiskey,  which  has,  no  doubt, 
been  drunk  long  ago  on  the  very  purest  principles.  In 
course  of  conversation  with  the  Committee  of  Taste  which 
had  assembled,  it  was  revealed  to  me  that  there  was  a  strict 
watch  kept  over  those  boats  which  are  freighted  with  whis 
key  forbidden  to  the  slaves,  and  with  principles,  when  they 
come  from  the  West  country,  equally  objectionable.  "  Did 
you  hear,  Sir,  of  the  chap  over  at  Duncan  Kenner's  as  was 
caught  the  other  day  ?  "  "  No,  Sir,  what  was  it  r  "  "  Well, 
Sir,  he  was  a  man  that  came  here  and  went  over  among  the 
niggers  at  Kenner's  to  buy  their  chickens  from  them.  He 
was  took  up,  and  they  found  he'd  a  lot  of  money  about 
him."  "  Well,  of  course,  he  had  money  to  buy  the  chick 
ens."  "  Yes,  Sir,  but  it  looked  suspic-ious.  He  was  a 
West  country  fellow,  tew,  and  he  might  have  meant  tam- 
perin'  with  'em.  Lucky  he  was  not  taken  in  the  arternoon." 
"Why  so?"  "Because  if  the  citizens  had  been  drunk 
they'd  have  hung  him  on  the  spot."  The  Acadia  was  now 
alongside,  and  in  the  early  morning  Donaldsonville  receded 
rapidly  into  trees  and  clouds.  To  bed,  and  make  amends 
for  mosquito  visits.  On  awaking,  find  that  I  am  in  the 
same  place  I  started  from  ;  at  least,  the  river  looks  just  the 
same.  It  is  difficult  to  believe  that  we  have  been  goinf 
eleven  miles  an  hour  against  the  turbid  river,  which  is  of  the 
same  appearance  as  it  was  below,  the  same  banks,  bends, 
driftwood  and  trees. 

Beyond  the  levees  there  were  occasionally  large  clearings 
and  plantations  of  corn  and  cane,  of  which  the  former  pre 
dominated.  The  houses  of  the  planters  were  not  so  large 
or  so  good  as  those  on  the  lower  banks.  Large  timber 
rafts,  navigated  by  a  couple  of  men,  who  stood  in  the  shade 
of  ft  couple  of  upright  boards,  were  encountered  at  long  in 
tervals.  The  river  was  otherwise  dead.  White  egrets  and 
blue  herons  rose  from  the  marshes  where  the  banks  had 
been  bored  through  by  crayfish,  or  crevasses  had  been 
formed  by  the  waters.  The  fields  were  not  much  more 
lively,  but  at  every  landing  the  whites  who  came  down  were 
in  some  sort  of  uniform,  and  a  few  negroes  were  in  attend 
ance  to  take  in  or  deliver  goods.  There  were  two  blacks 
on  board  in  irons  —  captured  runaways  —  and  very  misera 
ble  they  looked  at  the  thought  of  being  restored  to  the 
bosom  of  the  patriarchal  family  from  which  they  had,  no 
doubt,  so  prodigally  eloped.  I  feared  the  fatted  calf-skin 


168  THE    CIVIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA. 

would  not  be  applied  to  their  backs.  The  river  is  about 
half  a  mile  wide  here  and  is  upward  of  one  hundred  feet 
deep.  The  planters'  houses  in  groves  of  pecan  and  magno 
lias,  with  verandah  and  belvedere,  became  more  frequent 
as  the  steamer  approached  Baton  Rouge,  already  visible 
in  the  distance  over  a  high  bank  or  bluff  on  the  right-hand 
side. 

Before  noon  the  steamer  hauled  alongside  a  stationary 
hulk,  which  once  "  walked  the  waters  "  by  the  aid  of  ma 
chinery,  but  which  was  now  used  as  a  floating  hotel,  depot, 
and  storehouse  —  three  hundred  and  fifteen  feet  long,  and 
fully  thirty  feet  on  the  upper  deck  above  the  level  of  the 
river.  Here  were  my  quarters  till  the  boat  for  Natchez 
should  arrive.  The  proprietor  was  somewhat  excited  on 
my  arrival  because  my  servants  was  away.  "  Where  have 

you  been,  you  ?  "     "•  Away    to    buy    de    newspaper, 

Massa."     "  For   who,   you ?  " '     "  Me  buy  'em  for  no 

one,  Massa  ;  me   sell   'um  agin,   Massa."     "  See  now,  you 

,  if  ever  you  goes  aboard  to   meddle  with  newspapers, 

I'm but  I'll  kill   you,  mind  that!"     Baton  Rouge  is 

the  capital  of  the  State  of  Louisiana,  and  the  State  House  is 
a  quaint  and  very  new  example  of  bad  taste.  The  Deaf  and 
Dumb  Asylum  near  it  is  in  a  much  better  style.  It  was 
my  intention  to  visit  the  State  Prison  and  Penitentiary,  but 
the  day  was  too  hot,  and  the  distance  too  great,  and  so  I 
dined  at  the  oddest  little  Creole  restaurant,  with  the  fun 
niest  old  hostess  and  the  strangest  company  in  the  world. 
On  returning  to  the  boat  hotel,  Mr.  Conrad,  one  of  the 
citizens  of  the  place,  and  Mr.  W.  Avery,  a  Judge  of  the 
Court,  were  good  enough  to  call  to  invite  me  to  visit  them, 
but  I  was  obliged  to  decline.  The  old  gentlemen  were 
both  members  of  the  Home  Guard,  and  drilled  assiduously 
every  evening.  Of  the  one  thousand  three  hundred  voters 
at  Baton  Rouge,  more  than  seven  hundred  and  fifty  are  al 
ready  off  to  the  wars,  and  another  company  is  being  formed 
to  follow  them.  Mr.  Conrad  has  three  sons  in  the  field  al 
ready.  The  waiter  who  served  our  drinks  in  the  bar  wore  a 
uniform,  and  his  musket  lay  in  the  corner  among  the  brandy 
bottles.  At  night  a  patriotic  meeting  of  citizen  soldiery 
took  place  in  the  bow,  in  which  song  and  whiskey  had  much 
to  do,  so  that  sleep  was  difficult ;  but  at  seven  o'clock  on 
Wednesday  morning  the  Mary  T.  came  alongside,  and  soon 
afterward  bore  me  on  to  Natchez  through  scenery  which 
became  wilder  and  less  cultivated  as  she  got  upward.  Of 


THE    CIVIL   WAR    IN    AMERICA.  169 

the  one  thousand  five  hundred  steamers  on  the  river  not  a 
tithe  are  now  in  employment,  and  the  owners  are  in  a  bad 
way.  It  was  late  at  night  when  the  steamer  arrived  at 
Natchez,  and  next  morning  early  I  took  shelter  in  another 
engineless  steamer,  which  was  thought  to  be  an  hotel  by  its 
owners.  Old  negress  on  board,  however,  said,  "  There  was 
nothing  for  breakfast ;  go  to  Curry's  on  shore."  Walk  up 
hill  to  Curry's  —  a  bar-room,  a  waiter  and  flies.  "  Can  I 
have  any  breakfast  ?  "  "  No,  Sir-ree  ;  it's  over  half  an  hour 
ago."  "  Nothing  to  eat  at  all?"  "No,  Sir."  Can  I  get 
something  anywhere  else?  "  "  I  guess  not."  It  had  been 
my  belief  that  a  man  with  money  in  his  pocket  could  not 
starve  in  any  country  soi-disant  civilized  life.  Exceptions 
prove  rules,  but  they  are  disagreeable  things.  I  chewed  the 
cud  of  fancy  faute  de  mieux,  and  became  the  centre  of  at 
traction  to  citizens,  from  whose  conversation  I  learned  that 
this  was  "  Jeff.  Davis's  fast  day."  Observed  one,  "  It 
quite  puts  me  in  mind  of  Sunday :  all  the  stores  closed." 
Said  another,  "  We'll  soon  have  Sunday  every  day,  the:n, 
for  I  'spect  it  won't  be  worth  while  for  most  shops  to  keep 
open  any  longer."  Natchez,  a  place  of  much  trade  and  cot 
ton  export  in  the  season,  is  now  as  dull  —  let  us  say  as 
Harwich  without  a  regatta.  But  it  is  ultra-Secessionist, 
nil  obstante.  My  hunger  was  assuaged  by  a  friend  who 
drove  me  up  to  his  comfortable  mansion  through  a  country 
not  unlike  the  wooded  parts  of  Sussex,  abounding  in  fine 
trees,  and  in  the  only  lawns  and  park-like  fields  I  have  yet 
seen  in  America.  In  the  evening,  after  dinner,  my  host 
drove  me  over  to  visit  a  small  encampment  under  a  wealthy 
planter,  who  has  raised,  equipped,  and  armed  his  company 
at  his  own  expense. 

We  were  obliged  to  get  out  at  a  narrow  lane  and  walk 
toward  the  encampment  on  foot ;  a  sentry  stopped  us,  and 
we  observed  that  there  was  a  semblance  of  military  method 
in  the  camp.  The  captain  was  walking  up  and  down  in  the 
verandah  of  the  poor,  deserted  hut  for  which  he  had  aban 
doned  his  splendid  home.  A  Book  of  Tactics  (Hardee's) — 
which  is,  in  part,  a  translation  of  the  French  Manual  —  lay 
on  the  table.  Our  friend  was  full  of  fight,  and  said  he 
would  give  all  he  had  in  the  world  to  the  cause.  But  the 
day  before,  and  a  party  of  horse,  composed  of  sixty  gentle 
men  in  the  district,  with  from  £20,000  to  £50,000  each, 
had  started  for  the  war  in  Virginia.  Everything  to  be  seen 
or  heard  testifies  to  the  great  zeal  and  resolution  with  which 
15 


170  THE    CIVIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA. 

the  South  have  entered  upon  the  quarrel.  But  they  hold 
the  power  of  the  United  States  and  the  loyalty  of  the  North 
to  the  Union  at  far  too  cheap  a  rate.  Next  day  was  passed 
in  a  delightful  drive  through  cotton  fields,  Indian  corn,  and 
undulating  woodlands,  amid  which  were  some  charming  re 
sidences.  I  crossed  the  river  at  Natchez,  and  saw  one  fine 
plantation  in,  which  the  corn,  however,  was  by  no  means  so 
fine  as  I  have  often  seen.  The  cotton  looks  well,  and  some 
had  already  burst  into  flower  —  bloom,  as  it  is  called  — 
which  had  turned  to  a  flagrant  pink,  and  seemed  saucily 
conscious  that  its  boll  would  play  an  important  part  in  the 
world.  In  this  part  of  Mississippi  the  Secessionist  feeling 
was  not  so  overpowering  at  first  as  it  has  been  since  the  ma 
jority  declared  itself,  but  the  expression  of  feeling  is  now 
all  one  way.  The  rage  of  Southern  sentiment  is  to  me  inex 
plicable,  making  every  allowance  for  Southern  exaggeration. 
It  is  sudden,  hot,  and  apparently  causeless  as  summer 
lightning.  From  every  place  I  touched  at  along  the  Missis 
sippi,  a  large  proportion  of  the  population  has  gone  forth  to 
fight,  or  is  preparing  to  do  so.  The  whispers  which  rise 
through  the  storm  are  few  and  feeble.  Some  there  are  who 
sigh  for  the  peace  and  happiness  they  have  seen  in  England. 
But  they  cannot  seek  those  things ;  they  must  look  after 
their  property.  Each  man  maddens  his  neighbor  by  despe 
rate  resolves,  and  threats,  and  vows.  Their  faith  is  in  Jef 
ferson  Davis's  strength,  and  in  the  necessities  and  weakness 
of  France  and  England.  The  inhabitants  of  the  tracts 
which  lie  on  the  banks  of  the  Mississippi,  and  on  the  inland 
regions  hereabout,  ought  to  be,  in  the  natural  order  of 
things,  a  people  almost  nomadic,  living  by  the  chase  and  by 
a  sparse  agriculture,  in  the  freedom  which  tempted  their 
ancestors  to  leave  Europe.  But  the  Old  World  has  been 
working  for  them.  All  its  trials  have  been  theirs ;  the 
fruits  of  its  experience,  its  labors,  its  research,  its  discove 
ries,  are  theirs.  Steam  has  enabled  them  to  turn  their 
rivers  into  highways,  to  open  primeval  forests  to  the  light  of 
day  and  to  man.  All  these,  however,  would  have  availed 
them  little  had  not  the  demands  of  manufacture  abroad,  and 
the  increasing  luxury  and  population  of  the  North  and  West 
at  home,  enabled  them  to  find  in  these  swamps  and  uplands 
sources  of  wealth  richer  and  more  certain  than  all  the  gold 
mines  of  the  world.  But  there  must  be  gnomes  to  work 
those  mines.  Slavery  was  an  institution  ready  to  their 
hands.  In  its  development  there  lay  every  material  means 


THE    CIVIL    AVAR    IN    AMERICA.  171 

for  securing  the  prosperity  which  Manchester  opened  to 
them,  and  in  supplying  their  own  countrymen  with  sugar. 
The  small,  struggling,  deeply  mortgaged  proprietors  of 
swamp  and  forest  set  their  negroes  to  work  to  raise  levees, 
to  cut  down  trees,  to  plant  and  sow.  As  the  negro  became 
valuable  by  his  produce,  the  Irish  emigrant  took  his  place  in 
the  severer  labors  of  the  plantation,  and  ditched  and  dug, 
and  cut  into  the  waste  land.  Cotton  at  ten  cents  a  pound 
gave  a  nugget  in  every  boll.  Land  could  be  had  for  a  few 
dollars  an  acre.  Negroes  were  cheap  in  proportion.  Men 
who  made  a  few  thousand  dollars,  invested  them  in  more 
negroes  and  more  land,  and  borrowed  as  much  again  for  the 
same  purpose.  They  waxed  fat  and  rich  —  there  seemed 
no  bounds  to  their  fortune.  But  threatening  voices  came 
from  the  North  —  the  echoes  of  the  sentiments  of  the  civil 
ized  world  repenting  of  its  evil  pierced  their  ears,  and  they 
found  their  feet  were  of  clay,  and  that  they  were  nodding  to 
their  fall  in  the  midst  of  their  power.  Ruin  inevitable 
awaited  them  if  they  did  not  shut  out  these  sounds  and  stop 
the  fatal  utterances.  The  issue  is  to  them  one  of  life  and 
death.  Whoever  raises  it  hereafter,  if  it  be  not  decided 
now,  must  expect  to  meet  the  deadly  animosity  which  is 
displayed  toward  the  North.  The  success  of  the  South  —  if 
it  can  succeed  —  must  lead  to  complications  and  results  in 
other  parts  of  the  world  for  which  neither  it  nor  Europe  is 
now  prepared.  Of  one  thing  there  can  be  no  doubt  —  a 
Slave  State  cannot  long  exist  without  a  slave-trade.  The 
poor  whites  who  will  have  won  the  fight  will  demand  their 
share  of  the  spoils.  The  land  is  abundant,  and  all  that  is 
wanted  to  give  them  fortunes  is  a  supply  of  slaves.  They 
will  have  them  in  spite  of  their  masters,  unless  a  stronger 
power  prevents  the  accomplishment  of  their  wishes. 


LETTER     XIV. 

CAIRO,  111.,  June  20,  1861. 

MY  last  letter  was  dated  from  Natchez,  but  it  will  prob 
ably  accompany  this  communication,  as  there  are  no  mails 
now  between  the  North  and  the  South,  or  vice  versa. 
Tolerably  confident  in  my  calculations  that  nothing  of  much 
importance  could  take  place  in  the  field  till  some  time  after 


172  THE    CIYIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA. 

I  had  reached  my  post,  it  appeared  to  me  desirable  to  see 
as  much  of  the  South  as  I  could,  and  to  form  an  estimate  of 
the  strength  of  the  Confederation,  although  it  could  not  be 
done  at  this  time  of  the  year  without  considerable  inconve 
nience,  arising  from  the  heat,  which  renders  it  almost  im 
possible  to  write  in  the  day,  and  from  the  mosquitoes,  which 
come  out  when  the  sun  goes  down,  and  raise  a  blister  at 
every  stroke  of  the  pen.  On  several  days  lately  the  ther 
mometer  has  risen  to  ninety-eight  degrees  —  on  one  day  to 
one  hundred  and  five  degrees  —  in  the  shade. 

On  Friday  evening,  June  14,  I  started  from  Natchez  for 
Vicksburg  on  board  the  steamer  General  Quitman,  up  the 
Mississippi.  These  long  yellow  rivers  are  very  fine  for 
patriots  to  talk  about,  for  poets  to  write  about,  for  buffalo 
fish  to  live  in,  and  for  steamers  to  navigate  when  there  are 
no  snags,  but  I  confess  the  Father  of  Waters  is  extremely 
tiresome.  Even  the  good  cheer  and  the  comfort  of  the 
General  Quitman  could  not  reconcile  me  to  the  eternal 
beating  of  steam  drums,  blowing  whistles,  bumpings  at 
landings,  and  the  general  oppression  of  levees,  clearings, 
and  plantations,  which  marked  the  course  of  the  river,  and 
I  was  not  sorry  next  morning  when  Vicksburg  came  in 
sight  on  the  left  bank  of  the  giant  stream  —  a  city  on  a  hill, 
not  very  large,  besteepled,  becupolaed,  large-hoteled. 
Here  lives  a  man  who  has  been  the  pioneer  of  hotels  in  the 
West,  and  who  has  now  established  himself  in  a  big  cara 
vanserai,  which  he  rules  in  a  curious  fashion.  M'Makin 
has,  he  tells  us,  been  rendered  famous  by  Sir  Charles  Lyell. 
The  large  dining  room  —  a  stall,  d  manger,  as  a  friend  of 
mine  called  it  —  is  filled  with  small  tables  covered  with 
particolored  cloths.  At  the  end  is  a  long  deal  table,  heavy 
with  dishes  of  meat  and  vegetables,  presided  over  by  ne- 
gresses  and  gentlemen  of  uncertain  hue.  In  the  centre  of 
the  room  stood  my  host,  shouting  out  at  the  top  of  his  voice 
the  names  of  the  joints,  and  recommending  his  guests  to 
particular  dishes,  very  much  as  the  chronicler  tells  us  was 
the  wont  of  the  taverners  in  old  London.  Many  little 
negroes  ran  about  in  attendance,  driven  hither  and  thither 
by  the  command  of  their  white  Soulouque  —  white-teethed, 
pensive-eyed,  but  sad  as  memory.  "  Are  you  happy  here  !  " 
asked  I  of  one  of  them  who  stood  by  my  chair.  He  looked 
uneasy  and  frightened.  "  Why  don't  you  answer  ?  "  "  I'se 
feared  to  tell  dat  to  massa."  "  Why,  your  master  is  kind 
to  you  r  "  "  Berry  good  man,  sir,  when  he  .not  angry  wid 


THE    CIVIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA.  173 

me !  "  And  the  little  fellow's  eyes  filled  with  tears  at  some 
recollection  which  pained  him.  I  asked  no  more.  Vicks- 
burg  is  Secessionist.  There  were  hundreds  of  soldiers 
in  the  streets,  many  in  the  hotel,  and  my  host  said 
some  hundreds  of  Irish  had  gone  off  to  the  wars,  to  fight 
for  the  good  cause.  If  Mr.  O'Connell  were  alive,  he  would 
surely  be  pained  to  see  the  course  taken  by  so  many  of  his 
countrymen  on  this  question.  After  dinner  I  was  invited 
to  attend  a  meeting  of  some  of  the  citizens  at  the  railway 
station,  where  the  time  passed  very  agreeably  till  four 
o'clock,  when  the  train  started  for  Jackson,  the  capital  of 
Mississippi ;  and  after  a  passage  of  two  hours  through  a 
poor,  clay  country,  seared  with  water-courses  and  gullies, 
with  scanty  crops  of  Indian  corn  and  very  backward  cotton, 
we  were  deposited  in  that  city.  It  must  be  called  a  City. 
It  is  the  State  capital,  but  otherwise  there  is  no  reason  why, 
in  strict  nomenclature,  it  should  be  designated  by  any  such 
title.  It  is  in  the  usual  style  of  the  "  cities  "  which  spring 
up  in  the  course  of  a  few  years  amid  the  stumps  of  half- 
cleared  fields  in  the  wilderness  —  wooden  houses,  stores 
kept  by  Germans,  French,  Irish,  Italians  ;  a  large  hotel 
swarming  with  people,  with  a  noisy  billiard-room  and  a 
noisier  bar,  the  arena  and  the  cause  of  "  difficulties ;  " 
wooden  houses,  with  portentous  and  pretentious  white  por 
ticoes,  and  pillars  of  all  the  Grecian  orders  :  a  cupola  or  two, 
and  two  or  three  steeples,  too  large  for  the  feeble  bodies 
beneath  —  hydrocephalic  architecture  ;  a  State  house,  look-  • 
ing  well  at  a  distance,  ragged,  dirty,  and  mean  within  ; 
groups  of  idlers  in  front  of  "  Exchange,"  where  the  business 
transacted  consists  of  a  barter  between  money  or  credit  and 
"  drinks "  of  various  stimulants ;  a  secluded  telegraph 
office  round  a  corner  ;  a  forward  newspaper  office  in  the  street, 
and  a  population  of  negroes  shuffling  through  the  thick 
dust  which  forms  the  streets.  I  called  on  Mr.  Pettus,  the 
Governor  of  the  State  of  Mississippi,  according  to  invita 
tion,  and  found  him  in  the  State  House  in  a  very  poor 
room,  with  broken  windows  and  ragged  carpets  and  dilapi 
dated  furniture.  He  is  a  grim,  silent  man,  tobacco-ruminant, 
abrupt-speeched,  firmly  believing  that  the  state  of  society 
in  which  he  exists,  wherein  there  are  monthly  foul  murders 
perpetrated  at  the  very  seat  of  Government,  is  the  most  free 
and  civilized  in  the  world.  He  is  easy  of  access  to  all,  and 
men  sauntered  in  and  out  of  his  office  just  as  they  would  walk 
into  a  public  house.  Once  on  a  time,  indeed,  the  Governor 
15* 


174  THE    CIVIL    WAK    IN    AMERICA. 

was  a  deer  hunter  in  the  forest,  and  lived  far  away  from  the 
haunts  of  men,  and  he  is  proud  of  the  fact.  He  is  a  strenu 
ous  Seceder,  and  has  done  high-handed  things  in  his  way  — 
simple  apparently,  honest  probably,  fierce  certainly  —  and 
he  lives,  while  he  is  Governor,  on  his  salary  of  $4,000  a  year 
in  the  house  provided  for  him  by  the  State.  There  was  not 
much  to  say  on  either  side.  I  can  answer  for  one.  Next 
day  being  Sunday  I  remained  at  rest  in  the  house  of  a  friend 
listening  to  local  stories  —  not  couleur  de  rose,  but  of  a 
deeper  tint  —  blood-red  —  how  such  a  man  shot  another, 
and  was  afterwards  stabbed  by  a  third ;  how  this  fellow 
and  his  friends  hunted  down  in  broad  day  and  murdered 
one  obnoxious  to  them  —  tale  after  tale  such  as  I  have 
heard  through  the  South  and  seen  daily  narratives  of  in  the 
papers.  Aceldama !  No  security  for  life !  Property  is 
quite  safe.  Its  proprietor  is  in  imminent  danger,  were  it 
only  from  stray  bullets  when  he  turns  a  corner.  The  "  bar," 
the  "  drink,"  the  savage  practice  of  walking  about  with 
pistol  and  poniard  —  ungovernable  passions  ungoverned 
because  there  is  no  law  to  punish  the  deeds  to  which  they 
lead  —  these  are  the  causes  of  acts  which  would  not  be 
tolerated  in  the  worst  days  of  Corsican  vendette,  and  which 
must  be  put  down,  or  the  countries  in  which  they  are  un 
punished  will  become  as  barbarous  as  jungles  of  wild  beasts. 
In  the  evening  I  started  by  railroad  for  the  city  of  Memphis, 
in  Mississippi.  There  was  a  sleeping  car  on  the  train,  but 
.  the  flying  bug  and  the  creature  less  volatile,  more  pungent 
and  persistent,  which  bears  its  name,  murdered  sleep,  and 
when  Monday  morning  came  I  was  glad  to  arise  and  get 
into  one  of  the  carriages,  although  it  was  full  of  noisy 
soldiers  bound  to  the  camp  at  Corinth,  in  the  State  of  Mis 
sissippi,  who  had  been  drinking  whiskey  all  night,  and  were 
now  screaming  for  water  and  howling  like  demons.  At 
Holly  Spring,  where  a  rude  breakfast  awaited  us,  the  war 
riors  got  out  on  the  top  of  the  carriages  and  performed  a 
war  dance  to  the  music  of  their  band,  which  was  highly 
creditable  to  the  carriage-maker's  workmanship.  Along  the 
road  at  all  the  settlements  and  clearings  the  white  people 
cheered,  and  the  women  waved  white  things,  and  Secession 
flags  floated.  There  is  no  doubt  of  the  state  of  feeling  in 
this  part  of  the  country ;  and  yet  it  does  not  look  much 
worth  fighting  for  —  an  arid  soil,  dry  water-courses,  clay 
ravines,  light  crops.  Perhaps  it  will  be  better  a  month 
hence,  and  negroes  may  make  it  pay.  There  were  many  in 


THE    CIVIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA.  175 

the  fields,  and  it  struck  me  they  looked  better  than  those 
who  work  in  gangs  on  the  larger  and  richer  plantations. 
Among  our  passengers  were  gentlemen  from  Texas  going 
to  Richmond  to  offer  services  to  Mr.  Davis.  They  declared 
the  feeling  in  their  State  was  almost  without  exception  in 
favor  of  Secession.  It  is  as  astonishing  how  positive  all 
these  people  are  that  England  is  in  absolute  dependence  on 
cotton  for  her  national  existence.  They  are  at  once  savage 
and  childish.  If  England  does  not  recognize  the  Southern 
Confederacy  pretty  quick,  they  will  pass  a  resolution  not  to 
let  her  have  any  cotton,  except,  &c.  Suppose  England 
does  ever  recognize  a  Confederation  based  on  the  principles 
of  the  South,  what  gurantee  is  there  that  in  her  absolute 
dependence,  if  it  exists,  similar  coercive  steps  may  not  be 
taken  against  her  ?  "  Oh  !  we  shall  be  friends,  you  know  ;  " 
and  so  on. 

On  the  train  before  us  there  had  just  passed  on  a  company 
armed  with  large  bowie-knives  and  rifled  pistols,  who  called 
themselves  the  "  Toothpick  Company."  They  carried  a 
coffin  along  with  them,  on  which  was  a  plate  with  "  Abe 
Lincoln"  inscribed  on  it,  and  they  amused  themselves  with 
the  childish  conceit  of  telling  the  people  as  they  went  along 
that  "  they  were  bound  "  to  bring  his  body  back  in  it.  At 
Grand  Junction  Station  the  troops  got  out  and  were  mustered 
preparatory  to  their  transfer  to  a  train  for  Richmond,  in 
Virginia.  The  first  company,  about  seventy  strong,  consist 
ed  exclusively  of  Irish,  who  were  armed  with  rifles  without 
bayonets.  The  second  consisted  of  fifty-sixth  Irish,  armed 
mostly  with  muskets ;  the  third  were  of  Americans,  who 
were  well  uniformed,  but  had  no  arms  with  them.  The 
fourth,  clad  in  green,  were  nearly  all  Irish  ;  they  wore  all 
sorts  of  clothing,  and  had  no  pretensions  to  be  regarded  as 
disciplined  soldiers.  I  am  led  to  believe  that  the  great 
number  of  Irish  who  have  enlisted  for  service  indicates  a 
total  suspension  of  all  the  works  on  which  they  are  ordi 
narily  engaged  in  the  South.  They  were  not  very  orderly. 
"  Fix  bayonets,"  elicited  a  wonderful  amount  of  controversy 
in  the  ranks.  "  Whar  are  yer  dhrivin  to  ?  "  "  Sullivan, 
don't  yer  hear  we're  to  fix  beenits."  "  Ayse  the  strap  of 
mee  baynit,  sargint,  jewel!"  "If  ye  prod  me  wid  that 
agin,  I'll  let  dayloite  into  ye.v  Officer,  reading  muster  — 
"  No.  23,  James  Phelan."  No  reply.  Voice  from  the 
ranks  —  "  Faith  Phelan's  gone ;  sure  he  wint  at  the  last 
dipot."  Old  men  and  boys  were  mixed  together,  but  the 


176  THE    CIVIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA. 

mass  of  the  rank  and  file  were  strong,  full-grown  men.  In 
one  of  the  carriages  were  some  women  dressed  as  "  vivan- 
dieres,"  minus  the  coquet  air  and  the  trousers  and  boots  of 
those  ladies.  They  looked  sad,  sorry,  dirty,  and  foolish. 
There  was  a  great  want  of  water  along  the  line,  and  the 
dust  and  hea£  were  very  great  and  disagreeable.  When 
they  have  to  march  many  of  the  men  will  break  down, 
owing  to  bad  shoes  and  the  weight  of  clothes  and  trash  of 
various  kinds  they  sling  on  their  shoulders.  They  moved 
off  amid  much  whooping,  and  our  journey  was  continued 
through  a  country  in  which  the  railroad  engineer  had  made 
the  only  opening  for  miles  at  a  time.  When  a  clearing 
was  reached,  however,  there  were  signs  that  the  soil  was 
not  without  richness,  and  all  the  wheat  was  already  cut  and 
in  sheaf.  The  passengers  said  it  was  fine  and  early,  and 
that  it  averaged  from  forty  to  sixty  bushels  to  the  acre 
(more  than  it  looked).  Very  little  ground  here  is  under 
cotton.  It  was  past  one  o'clock  on  Monday  when  the  train 
reached  Memphis,  in  Tennessee,  which  is  situated  on  a  high 
bluff  overhanging  the  Mississippi.  Here  is  one  of  the 
strategic  positions  of  the  Confederates.  It  is  now  occupied 
by  a  force  of  the  Tennesseeans,  which  is  commanded  by 
Major-General  Pillow,  whom  I  found  quartered  in  Gayoso 
House,  a  large  hotel,  named  after  one  of  the  old  Spanish 
rulers  here,  and  as  he  was  just  starting  to  inspect  his  bat 
teries  and  the  camp  at  Randolph,  sixty  odd  miles  higher  up 
the  river,  I  could  not  resist  his  pressing  invitations,  tired  as 
I  was,  to  accompany  him  and  his  staff  on  board  the  Ingo- 
mar,  to  see  what  they  were  really  like.  First  we  visited  the 
bluff  on  the  edge  of  which  is  constructed  a  breastwork  of 
cotton  bales,  which  no  infantry  could  get  at,  and  which 
would  offer  no  resistance  to  vertical  and  but  little  to  hori 
zontal  fire.  It  is  placed  so  close  to  the  edge  of  the  bluff  at 
various  places  that  shell  and  shot  would  knock  away  the 
bank  from  under  it.  The  river  rolls  below  deep  and  strong, 
and  across  the  roads  or  water-courses  leading  to  it  are  feeble 
barricades  of  plank,  which  a  howitzer  would  shiver  to  pieces 
in  a  few  rounds.  Higher  up  the  bank,  on  a  commanding 
plateau,  there  is  a  breastwork  and  parapet,  within  which 
are  six  guns,  and  the  General  informed  me  he  intended  to 
mount  thirteen  guns  at  this  part  of  the  river  which  would 
certainly  prove  very  formidable  to  such  steamers  as  they 
had  on  these  waters,  if  any  attempt  were  made  to  move 
from  Cairo. 


THE    CIVIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA.  177 

In  the  course  of  the  day  I  was  introduced  to  exactly 
seventeen  colonels  and  one  captain.  .My  happiness  was 
further  increased  by  an  introduction  to  a  youth  of  some 
twenty- three  years  of  age,  with  tender  feet  if  I  may  judge 
from  prunella  slippers,  dressed  in  a  green  cutaway,  jean  pants, 
and  a  tremendous  sombrero  with  a  plume  of  ostrich  feathers, 
and  gold  tassels  looped  at  the  side,  who  had  the  air  and 
look  of  an  apothecary's  errand  boy.  This  was  "  General" 
Maggies  (let  us  say)  of  Arkansas.  Freighted  deeply  with 
the  brave,  the  Ingomar  started  for  her  voyage,  and  we  came 
alongside  the  bank  at  Chickasaw  Bluffs,  too  late  to  visit  the 
camp,  as  it  was  near  midnight  before  we  arrived.  I  forgot 
to  say  that  a  large  number  of  steamers  were  lying  at 
Memphis,  which  had  been  seized  by  General  Pillow,  and  he 
has  forbidden  all  traffic  in  boats  to  Cairo.  Passengers  must 
go  round  by  rail  to  Columbus. 

JUNE  18.  —  I  have  just  returned  from  a  visit  to  the  works 
and  batteries  at  the  intrenched  camp  at  Randolph's  Point, 
sixty  miles  above  Memphis,  by  which  it  is  intended  to  de 
stroy  any  flotilla  coming  down  the  river  from  Cairo,  and  to 
oppose  any  force  coming  by  land  to  cover  its  flank,  and 
clear  the  left  bank  of  the  Mississippi.  The  Ingomar  is 
lying  under  the  rugged  bank,  or  bluff,  about  150  feet  high, 
which  recedes  in  rugged  tumuli  and  watercourses  filled  with 
brushwood  from  the  margin  of  the  river,  some  half  mile  up  and 
down  the  stream  at  this  point,  and  Brigadier-General  Pillow 
is  still  riding  round  his  well-beloved  earthworks  and  his 
quaint  battalions,  while  I,  anxious  to  make  the  most  of  my 
time  now  that  I  am  fairly  on  the  run  for  my  base  of  opera 
tions,  have  come  on  board,  aud  am  now  writing  in  the  cabin, 
a  long-roofed  room,  with  berths  on  each  side,  which  runs 
from  stem  to  stern  of  the  American  boats  over  the  main 
deck.  This  saloon  presents  a  curious  scene.  Over  the  bow, 
at  one  side,  there  is  an  office  for  the  sale  of  tickets,  now 
destitute  of  business,  for  the  Ingomar  belongs  to  the  State 
of  Tennessee  ;  at  the  other  side  is  a  bar,  where  thirsty  souls, 
who  have  hastened  on  board  from  the  camp  for  a  julep,  a 
smash,  or  a  cocktail,  learn  with  disgust  that  the  only  article 
to  be  had  is  fine  Mississippi  water  with  ice  in  it.  Lying  on 
the  deck  in  all  attitudes  are  numbers  of  men  asleep,  whose 
plumed  felt  hats  are  the  only  indications  that  they  are 
soldiers,  except  in  the  rare  case  of  those  who  have  rude 
uniforms,  and  buttons  and  stripes  of  colored  cloth  on  the 


178  THE    CIVIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA. 

legs  of  their  pantaloons.  A  sentry  is  sitting  on  a  chair 
smoking  a  cigar.  He  is  on  guard  over  the  after  part  of  the 
deck,  called  the  ladies'  saloon,  and  sacred  to  the  General 
and  his  staff  and  attendants.  He  is  a  tall,  good-looking 
young  fellow,  in  a  gray  flannel  shirt,  a  black  wide-awake, 
gray  trowsers,  fastened  by  a  belt,  on  which  is  a  brass  buckle 
incribed  "  U.  S."  His  rifle  is  an  Enfield,  and  the  bayonet- 
sheath  is  fastened  to  the  belt  by  a  thong  of  leather.  That 
youthful  patriot  is  intent  on  the  ups  and  downs  of  fortune 
as  exemplified  in  the  pleasing  game  of  euchre,  or  euker, 
which  is  exercising  the  faculties  of  several  of  his  comrades, 
who,  in  their  shirt-sleeves,  are  employing  the  finest  faculties 
of  their  nature  in  that  national  institution ;  but  he  is  not 
indifferent  to  his  duties,  and  he  forbids  your  correspondent's 
entrance  until  he  has  explained  what  he  wants,  and  who  he 
is,  and  the  second  is  more  easy  to  do  than  the  first.  The 
sentry  tells  his  captain,  who  is  an  euchreist,  that  "  It's  all 
right,"  and  resumes  his  seat  and  his  cigar,  and  the  work 
goes  bravely  on.  Indeed,  it  went  on  last  night  at  the  same 
table,  which  is  within  a  few  yards  of  the  General's  chair  ; 
and  now  that  I  have  got  a  scrap  of  paper  and  a  moment  of 
quiet,  let  me  say  what  I  have  to  say  of  this  position,  and 
of  what  I  saw  —  pleasant  things  they  would  be  to  the  Fed 
eralist  General  up  at  Cairo,  if  he  could  hear  them  in  time, 
unless  he  is  as  little  prepared  as  his  antagonist.  On  looking 
out  of  my  cabin  this  morning,  I  saw  the  high  and  rugged 
bluff  of  which  I  have  spoken  on  the  left  bank  of  the  river. 
A  few  ridge-poled  tents,  pitched  under  the  shade  of  some 
trees,  on  a  small  spur  of  the  slope,  was  the  only  indication 
immediately  visible  of  a  martial  character.  But  a  close 
inspection  in  front  enabled  me  to  detect  two  earthworks 
mounted  with  guns,  on  the  side  of  the  bank,  considerably 
higher  than  the  river,  and  three  heavy  guns,  possibly  42- 
pounders,  lay  in  the  dust  close  to  the  landing-place,  with 
very  rude  carriages  and  bullock-poles  to  carry  them  to  the 
batteries.  A  few  men,  ten  or  twelve  in  number,  were  dig 
ging  at  an  encampment  on  the  face  of  the  slope.  Others 
were  lounging  about  the  beach,  and  others,  under  the  same 
infatuation  as  that  which  makes  little  boys  disport  in  the 
Thames  under  the  notion  that  they  are  washing  themselves, 
were  bathing  in  the  Mississippi.  A  dusty  cart  track  wound 
up  to  the  brow  of  the  bluff,  and  there  disappeared.  Some 
carts  toiled  up  and  down  between  the  boat  and  the  crest 
of  the  hill.  We  went  on  shore.  There  was  no  ostenta- 


THE    CIVIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA..  179 

tion  of  any  kind  about  the  reception  of  the  General  and 
his  staff.  A  few  horses  were  waiting  impatiently  in  the 
sun,  for  the  flies  will  have  their  way,  and  heavy  men  are 
not  so  unbearable  as  small  mosquitoes.  With  a  cloud  of  col 
onels —  one  late  United  Statesman,  who  was  readily  distin 
guishable  by  his  air  from  the  volunteers  —  the  General  pro- 
ceded  to  visit  his  batteries  and  his  men.  The  first  work 
inspected  was  a  plain  parapet  of  earth,  placed  some  fifty  feet 
above  the  river,  and  protected  very  slightly  by  two  small 
flanking  parapets.  Six  guns,  32-pounders,  and  howitzers  of 
an  old  pattern  were  mounted  en  barbefte,  without  any  trav 
erses  whatever.  The  carriages  rested  on  rough  platforms,  and 
the  wheels  ran  on  a  traversing  semicircle  of  plank,  as  the 
iron  rails  were  not  yet  ready.  The  gunners,  a  plain  looking 
body  of  men,  very  like  railway  laborers  and  mechanics 
without  uniform,  were  engaged  at  drill.  It  was  neither 
quick  nor  good  work  —  about  equal  to  the  average  of  a 
squad  after  a  couple  of  days'  exercise ;  but  the  men 
worked  earnestly,  and  I  have  no  doubt,  if  the  Federalists 
give  them  time,  they  will  prove  artillerymen  in  the  end. 
The  General  ordered  practice  to  be  made  with  round  shot. 
After  some  delay,  a  kind  of  hybrid  ship's  carronade  was 
loaded.  The  target  was  a  tree,  about  two  thousand  five 
hundred  yards  distant,  I  was  told.  It  appeared  to  me  about 
one  thousand  seven  hundred  yards  off.  Every  one  was  de 
sirous  of  seeing  the  shot ;  but  we  were  at  the  wrong  side 
for  the  wind,  and  I  ventured  to  say  so.  However,  the  Gen 
eral  thought  and  said  otherwise.  The  word  "  Fire  !  "  was 
given.  Alas  ?  the  friction- tube  would  not  explode.  It  was 
one  of  a  new  sort,  which  the  Tennesseeans  are  trying  their 
'prentice  hand  at.  A  second  ball  answered  better.  The 
gun  went  off,  but  where  the  ball  went  to  no  one  could  say, 
as  the  smoke  came  into  our  eyes.  The  party  moved  to 
windward,  and,  after  another  fuse  had  missed,  the  gun  was 
again  discharged  at  some  five  degrees  elevation,  and  the 
shot  fell  in  good  line,  two  hundred  yards  short  of  the  target, 
and  did  not  riochet.  Gun  No.  2  was  then  discharged,  and 
off  went  the  ball,  at  no  particular  mark,  down  the  river  ;  but 
if  it  did  go  off,  so  did  the  gun  also, -for  it  gave  a  frantic  leap 
and  j  limped  with  the  carriage  off  the  platform ;  nor  was 
this  wonderful,  for  it  was  an  oldfashioned  chamber  carron 
ade  or  howitzer,  which  had  been  loaded  with  a  full  charge, 
and  solid  shot  enough  to  make  it  burst  with  indignation. 
Turning  from  this  battery,  we  visited  another  nearer  the 


180  THE    CITIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA. 

water,  with  four  guns  (32-pounders),  which  were  well  placed 
to  sweep  the  channel  with  greater  chance  of  riochet ;  and 
higher  on  the  bank,  toward  a  high  peak  commanding  the 
Mississippi,  here  about  seven  hundred  yards  broad,  and  a 
small  confluent  which  runs  into  it,  was  another  battery  of 
two  guns,  with  a  very  great  command,  but  only  fit  for  shell, 
as  the  fire  must  be  plunging.  All  these  batteries  were  very 
ill  constructed,  and  in  only  one  was  the  magazine  under 
decent  cover.  In  the  first  it  was  in  rear  of  the  battery,  up 
the  hill  behind  it.  The  parapets  were  of  sand  or  soft  eaiih, 
unprovided  with  merlons.  The  last  had  a  few  sand-bags 
between  the  guns.  Riding  up  a  steep  road,  we  came  to  the 
camps  of  the  men  on  the  wooded  and  undulating  plateau 
over  the  river,  which  is  broken  by  water-courses  into  ravines 
covered  with  brushwood  and  forest  trees.  For  five  weeks 
the  Tennessee  troops  under  General  Pillow,  who  is  at  the 
head  of  the  forces  of  the  State,  have  been  working  at  a 
series  of  curious  intrenchments  which  are  supposed  to  re 
present  an  intrenched  camp,  and  which  look  like  an  assem 
blage  of  mud  beaver  dams.  In  a  word,  they  are  so  com 
plicated  that  they  would  prove  exceedingly  troublesome  to 
the  troops  engaged  in  their  defence,  and  it  would  require 
very  steady,  experienced  regulars  to  man  them  so  as  to  give 
proper  support  to  each  other.  The  maze  of  breastworks,  of 
flanking  parapets,  of  parapets  for  field-pieces,  is  overdone. 
Several  of  them  might  prove  useful  to  an  attacking  force. 
In  some  places  the  wood  was  cut  down  in  front,  so  as  to 
form  a  formidable  natural  abattis  ;  but  generally  here,  as 
in  the  batteries  below,  timber  and  brushwood  were  left  un 
cut  up  to  easy  musket  shot  of  the  works,  so  as  to  screen  an 
advance  of  riflemen,  and  to  expose  the  defending  force  to 
considerable  annoyance.  In  small  camps  of  fifteen  or  twenty 
tents  each  the  Tennessee  troops  were  scattered,  for  health 
sake,  over  the  plateau,  and  on  the  level  ground  a  few  com 
panies  were  engaged  at  drill.  The  men  were  dressed  and 
looked  like  laboring  people  —  small  farmers,  mechanics,  with 
some  small,  undersized  lads.  The  majority  were  in  their 
shirt  sleeves,  and  the  awkwardness  with  which  they  handled 
their  arms  showed  that,  however  good  they  might  be  as 
shots,  they  were  by  no  means  proficients  in  manual  exercise. 
Indeed,  they  could  not  be,  as  they  have  been  only  five 
weeks  in  the  service  of  the  State  called  out  in  anticipa 
tion  of  the  Secession  vote,  and  since  then  they  have 
been  employed  by  General  Pillow  on  his  fortifications. 


THE    CIVIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA.  181 

They  have  complained  more  than  once  of  their  hard  work, 
particularly  when  it  was  accompanied  by  hard  fare,  and  one 
end  of  General  Pillow's  visit,  was  to  inform  them  that  they 
would  soon  be  relieved  from  their  labors  by  negroes  and 
hired  laborers.  Their  tents,  small  ridge-poles,  are  very  bad, 
but  suited,  perhaps,  to  the  transport.  Each  contains  six 
men.  I  could  get  no  accurate  account  of  their  rations  even 
from  the  Quartermaster-General,  and  Commissary-General 
there  was  none  present ;  but  I  was  told  that  they  had  "  a 
sufficiency  —  from  J  Ib.  to  1^-  Ib.  of  meat,  of  bread,  of  sugar, 
coffee,  and  rice,  daily."  Neither  spirits  nor  tobacco  is  served 
out  to  these  terrible  chewers  and  not  unaccomplished  drink 
ers.  Their  pay  "  will  be  "  the  same  as  in  the  United  States 
Army  or  the  Confederate  States  Army  —  probably  paid  in 
the  circulating  medium  of  the  latter.  Seven  or  eight  hun 
dred  men  were  formed  in  line  for  inspection.  There  were 
few  of  the  soldiers  in  any  kind  of  uniform,  and  such  uni 
forms  as  I  saw  were  in  very  bad  taste,  and  consisted  of  gaudy 
facings  and  stripes  on  very  strange  garments.  They  were 
armed  with  old-pattern  percussion  muskets,  and  their  ammu 
nition  pouches  were  of  diverse  sorts.  Shoes  often  bad,  knap 
sacks  scarce,  head-pieces  of  every  kind  of  shape  —  badges 
worked  on  the  front  or  sides,  tinsel  in  much  request.  Every 
man  had  a  tin  water-flask  and  a  blanket.  The  General  ad 
dressed  the  men,  who  were  in  line  two  deep  (many  of  them 
unmistakably  Irishmen),  and  said  what  Generals  usually  say 
on  such  occasions  — compliments  for  the  past,  encouragement 
for  the  future.  "  When  the  hour  of  danger  comes  I  will  be 
with  you."  They  did  not  seem  to  care  much  whether  he  was 
or  not ;  and,  indeed,  General  Pillow,  in  a  round  hat,  dusty 
black  frock  coat,  and  ordinary  "  unstriped "  trowsers,  did 
not  look  like  one  who  could  give  any  great  material  acces 
sion  to  the  physical  moans  of  resistance,  although  he  is  a 
very  energetic  man.  The  Major-General,  in  fact,  is  an 
attorney-at-law,  or  has  been  so,  and  was  partner  with  Mr. 
Polk,  who,  probably  from  some  of  the  reasons  which  deter 
mine  the  actions  of  partners  to  each  other,  sent  Mr.  Pillow 
to  the  Mexican  war,  where  he  nearly  lost  him,  owing  to 
severe  wounds  received  in  action.  The  General  has  made 
his  intrenchments  as  if  he  were  framing  an  indictment. 
There  is  not  a  flaw  for  an  enemy  to  get  through,  but  he  has 
bound  up  his  own  men  in  inexorable  lines  also.  At  one  of 
the  works  a  proof  of  the  freedom  of  "citizen  soldiery"  was 
afforded  in  a  little  hilarity  on  the  part  of  one  of  the  privates. 
16 


182  THE    CIVIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA. 

The  men  had  lined  the  parapet,  and  had  listened  to  the 
pleasant  assurances  of  their  commander,  that  they  would 
knock  off  the  shovel  and  the  hoe  very  soon,  and  be  replaced 
by  the  eternal  gentlemen  of  color.  "  Three  cheers  for  Gen 
eral  Pillow  "  were  called  for,  and  were  responded  to  by  the 
whooping  and  screeching  sounds  that  pass  muster  in  this 
part  of  the  world  for  cheers.  As  they  ended,  a  stentorian 
voice  shouted  out,  "Who  cures  for  Geneial  Pillow?"  and, 
as  no  one  answered,  it  might  be  unfairly  inferred  that  gallant 
officer  was  not  the  object  of  the  favor  or  solicitude  of  his 
troops ;  probably  a  temporary  unpopularity  connected  with 
the  hard  work,  found  expression  in  the  daring  question. 

Randolph's  Point  is,  no  doubt,  a  very  strong  position. 
The  edges  of  the  plateau  command  the  rear  of  the  batteries 
below ;  the  ravines  in  the  bluff  would  give  cover  to  a  large 
force  of  riflemen,  who  could  render  the  batteries  untenable 
if  taken  from  the  river  face,  unless  the  camp  in  their  rear  on 
the  top  of  the  plateau  was  carried.  Great  loss  of  life,  and 
probable  failure,  would  result  from  any  attack  on  the  works 
from  the  river  merely.  But  a  flotilla  might  get  past  the 
guns  without  any  serious  loss  in  the  present  state  of  their 
service  and  equipment ;  and  there  is  nothing  I  saw  to  pre 
vent  the  landing  of  a  force  on  the  banks  of  the  river,  which, 
with  a  combined  action  on  the  part  of  an  adequate  force  of 
gunboats,  could  carry  the  position.  As  the  river  falls  the 
round-shot  fire  from  the  guns  will  be  even  less  effective. 
The  General  is  providing  water  for  the  camps  by  means  of 
large  cisterns  dug  in  the  ground,  which  will  be  filled  with 
water  from  the  river  by  steam  power.  The  officers  of  the 
army  of  Tennessee  with  whom  I  spoke  were  plain,  farmerly 
planters,  merchants,  and  lawyers  ;  and  the  heads  of  the  de 
partment  were  in  no  respect  better  than  their  inferiors  by 
reason  of  any  military  acquirements,  but  were  shrewd,  en 
ergetic,  common-sense  men.  The  officer  in  command  of  the 
works,  however,  understood  his  business,  apparently,  and 
was  well  supported  by  the  artillery  officer.  There  were,  I 
was  told,  eight  pieces  of  field  artillqry  disposable  for  the 
defence  of  the  camp. 

Having  returned  to  the  steamer,  the  party  proceeded  up 
the  river  to  another  small  camp  in  defence  of  a  battery  of 
four  guns,  or  rather  of  a  small  parallelogram  of  soft  sand 
covering  a  man  a  little  higher  than  the  knee,  with  four  guns 
mounted  in  it  on  the  river  face.  No  communication  exists 
through  the  woods  between  the  two  camps,  which  must  be 


THE    CIVIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA.  183 

six  or  seven  miles  apart.  The  force  stationed  here  was 
composed  principally  of  gentlemen.  They  were  all  in  uni 
form.  A  detachment  worked  one  of  the  guns,  which  the 
General  wished  to  see  fired  with  round  shot.  In  five  or  six 
minutes  after  the  order  was  given  the  gun  was  loaded,  and 
the  word  given,  "  Fire."  The  gunner  pulled  the  lanyard 
hard,  but  the  tube  did  not  explode.  Another  was  tried.  A 
strong  jerk  pulled  it  out  bent  and  incombustible.  A  third 
was  inserted,  which  came  out  broken.  The  fourth  time  was 
the  charm,  and  the  ball  was  projected  about  60  yards  to  the 
right,  and  100  yards  short  of  the  mark  —  a  stump,  some 
1,200  yards  distant,  in  the  river.  It  must  be  remembered 
that  there  are  no  disparts,  tangents,  or  elevating  screws  to 
the  guns ;  the  officer  was  obliged  to  lay  it  by  the  eye  with 
a  plain  chock  of  wood.  The  General  explained  that  the 
friction  tubes  were  the  results  of  an  experiment  he  was 
making  to  manufacture  them  ;  but  I  agreed  with  one  of  the 
officers,  who  muttered  in  my  ear,  "  The  old  linstock  and 
portfire  are  a  darned  deal  better.'1  There  were  no  shells,  I 
could  see,  in  the  battery,  and,  on  inquiry,  I  learned  the  fuses 
were  made  of  wood  at  Memphis,  and  were  not  considered 
by  the  officers  at  all  trustworthy.  Powder  is  so  scarce  that 
all  salutes  are  inderdicted,  except  to  the  Governor  of  the 
State.  In  the  two  camps  there  were,  I  was  informed,  about 
4,000  men.  My  eyesight,  so  far  as  I  went,  confirmed  me 
of  the  existence  of  some  1,800,  but  I  did  not  visit  all  the 
outlying  tents.  On  landing  the  band  had  played  "  God 
Save  the  Queen  "  and  "  Dixie's  Land ;  "  on  returning  we 
had  the  "Marseillaise"  and  the  national  anthem  of  the 
Southern  Confederation  ;  and,  by  way  of  parenthesis,  it  may 
be  added,  if  you  do  not  already  know  the  fact,  that  "  Dixie's 
Land  "  is  a  synonym  for  Heaven.  It  appears  that  there  was 
once  a  good  planter,  named  "  Dixie,"  who  died  at  some  pe 
riod  unknown,  to  the  intense  grief  of  his  animated  property. 
They  found  expression  for  their  sorrow  in  song,  and  con 
soled  themselves  by  clamoring  in  verse  for  their  removal  to 
the  land  to  which  Di.\ie  had  departed,  and  where  probably 
the  revered  spirit  would  be  greatly  surprised  to  find  himself 
in  their  company.  Whether  they  were  ill-treated  after  he 
died,  and  thus  had  reason  to  deplore  his  removal,  or  merely 
desired  Heaven  in  the  abstract,  nothing  known  enables  me 
to  assert.  But  Dixie's  Land  is  now  generally  taken  to  mean 
the  Seceded  States,  where  Mr.  Dixie  certainly  is  not  at  this 
present  writing.  The  song  and  air  are  the  composition  of 


184  THE    CIVIL   WAR    IN    AMERICA. 

the  organized  African  Association  for  the  advancement  of 
music  and  their  own  profit,  which  sings  in  New  York,  and 
it  may  be  as  well  to  add,  that  in  all  my  tour  in  the  South 
I  heard  little  melody  from  lips  black  or  white,  and  only  once 
heard  negroes  singing  in  the  fields. 

Several  sick  men  were  put  on  board  the  steamer,  and  were 
laid  on  mattresses  on  deck.  I  spoke  to  them,  and  found 
they  were  nearly  all  suffering  from  diarrhoea,  and  that  they 
£  had  no  medical  attendance  in  camp.  All  the  doctors  went 
to  fight,  and  the  Medical  Service  of  the  Tennessee  troops  is 
very  defective.  As  I  was  going  down  the  river  1  had  some 
interesting  conversation  with  General  Clark,  who  commands 
about  5,000  troops  of  the  Confederate  States,  at  present 
quartered  in  two  camps  at  Tennessee  on  these  points.  He 
told  me  the  Commissariat  and  the  Medical  Service  had  given 
him  great  annoyance,  and  confesses  some  desertions  and 
courts-martial  had  occurred.  Guard-mounting  and  its  ac 
cessory  duties  were  performed  in  a  most  slovenly  manner, 
and  the  German  troops  from  the  Southern  parts  were  par 
ticularly  disorderly.  It  was  late  in  the  afternoon  when  I 
reached  Memphis.  I  may  mention,  obiter,  that  the  captain 
of  the  steamer,  talking  of  arms,  gave  me  a  notion  of  the 
sense  of  security  he  felt  on  board  his  vessel.  From  under 
his  pillow  he  pulled  one  of  his  two  Derringer  pistols,  and 
out  of  his  clothes-press  he  produced  a  long  heavy  rifle  and 
a  double  gun,  which  was,  he  said,  capital  with  ball  and 
b-ickshot. 

JUNE  19.  —  Up  at  3  o'clock,  A.  M.,  to  get  ready  for  the 
tiain  at  5,  which  will  take  me  out  of  Dixie's  Land  to  Cairo. 
If  the  owners  of  the  old  hostelries  in  the  Egyptian  city  were 
at  all  like  their  Tennesseean  fellow  craftsmen  in  the  upstart 
.  institution  which  takes  its  name,  I  wonder  how  Herodotus 
managed  to  pay  his  way.  My  sable  attendant  quite  entered 
into  our  feelings,  and  was  rewarded  accordingly.  At  5  A.  M., 
covered  with  dust,  contracted  in  a  drive  through  the  streets 
which  seem  "  paved  with  waves  of  mud,"  to  use  the  phrase 
of  a  Hibernian  gentlemen  connected  with  the  baggage  de 
partment  of  the  omnibus,  "  only  the  mud  was  all  dust,"  to 
use  my  own,  I  started  in  the  cars  along  with  some  Confed 
erate  officers  and  several  bottles  of  whiskey,  which  at  that 
early  hour  was  considered  by  my  unknown  companions  as  a 
highly  efficient  prophylatic  against  the  morning  dews;  but 
it  appeared  that  these  dews  are  of  such  a  deadly  character 


THE    CIVIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA.  185 

that,  in  order  to  guard  against  their  effects,  one  must  become 
dead  drunk.  The  same  remedy,  I  am  assured,  is  sovereign 
against  rattlesnake  bites.  I  can  assure  the  friends  of  these 
gentlemen  that  they  were  amply  fortified  against  any  amount 
of  dew  or  of  rattlesnake  poison  before  they  got  to  the  end 
of  their  whiskey,  so  great  was  the  supply.  By  the  Memphis 
papers  it  seems  as  if  the  institution  of  blood  prevailed  there 
as  in  New  Orleans,  for  I  read  in  my  paper  as  I  went  along 
of  two  murders  and  one  shooting  as  the  incidents  of  the 
previous  day,  contributed  by  "  the  local."  To  contrast  with 
this  low  state  of  social  existence,  there  must  be  a  high  con 
dition  of  moral  feeling,  for  the  journal  I  was  reading  con 
tained  a  very  elaborate  article  to  show  the  wickedness  of 
any  one  paying  his  debts,  and  of  any  State  acknowledging 
its  liabilities,  which  would  constitute  an  invaluable  vade 
mecum  for  Basinghall  Street.  At  Humboldt,  there  was 
what  was  called  a  change  of  cars  —  a  process  that  all  the 
philosophy  of  the  Baron  could  not  have  enabled  him  to  en 
dure  without  some  loss  of  temper,  for  there  was  a  whole 
Kosmos  of  Southern  patriotism  assembled  at  the  station, 
burning  with  the  fires  of  Liberty,  and  bent  on  going  to  the 
camp  at  Union  City,  forty-six  miles  away,  where  the  Con 
federate  forces  of  Tennessee,  aided  by  Mississippi  regiments, 
are  out  under  the  greenwood  tree.  Their  force  was  irresist 
ible,  particularly  as  there  were  numbers  of  relentless  citi- 
zenesses  —  what  the  American  papers  call  "  quite  a  crowd  " 
—  as  the  advanced  guard  of  the  invading  army.  While  the 
original  occupants  were  being  compressed  or  expelled  by 
crinoline  —  that  all-absorbing,  defensive,  and  agressive  arti 
cle  of  feminine  war  reigns  here  in  wide-spread,  iron-bound 
circles  —  I  took  refuge  on  the  platform,  where  I  made,  in 
an  involuntary  way,  a  good  many  acquaintances  in  this  sort : 
"  Sir,  my  name  is  Jones  —  Judge  Jones  of  Pumpkin  County. 
I  am  happy  to  know  you,  Sir."  We  shake  hands  affection 
ately.  "  Colonel,"  (Jones  loquitur)  "  allow  me  to  introduce 
you  to  my  friend  Mr.  Scribble !  Colonel  Maggs,  Mr.  Scrib 
ble."  The  Colonel  shakes  hands,  and  immediately  darts  off 
to  a  circle  of  his  friends,  whom  he  introduces,  and  they  each 
introduce  some  one  else  to  me,  and,  finally,  I  am  introduced 
to  the  engine-driver,  who  is  really  an  acquaintance  of  value, 
for  he  is  good  enough  to  give  me  a  seat  on  his  engine,  and 
the  bell  tolls,  the  steam-trumpet  bellows,  and  we  move  from 
the  station  an  hour  behind  time,  and  with  twice  the  number 
of  passengers  the  cars  were  meant  to  contain.  Our  engineer 
16* 


186  THE    CIVIL    WAR    IX    AMERICA. 

did  his  best  to  overcome  his  difficulties,  and  we  rushed  rap 
idly,  if  not  steadily,  through  a  wilderness  of  forest  and 
tangled  brakes,  through  which  the  rail,  without  the  smallest 
justification,  performed  curves  and  twists,  indicative  of  a 
desire  on  the  part  of  the  engineer  to  consume  the  greatest 
amount  of  rail  on-  the  shortest  extent  of  line.  My  compan 
ion  was  a  very  intelligent  Southern  gentlemen,  formerly 
editor  of  a  newspaper.  We  talked  of  the  crime  of  the 
country,  of  the  brutal  shootings  and  stabbings  which  dis 
graced  it.  He  admitted  their  existence  with  regret,  but  he 
could  advise  and  suggest  no  remedy.  "  The  rowdies  have 
rushed  in  upon  us,  so  that  we  can't  master  them."  "  Is  the 
law  powerless?  "  "Well,  Sir,  you  see  these  men  got  hold 
of  those  who  should  administer  the  law,  or  they  are  too 
powerful  or  too  reckless  to  be  kept  down."  "  That  is  a 
reign  of  terror  —  of  mob-ruffianism!  "  "  It  don't  hurt  re 
spectable  people  much,  but  I  agree  with  you  it  must  be  put 
down."  "  When— how?  "  "  Well,  Sir,  when  things  are 
settled  we'll  just  take  the  law  into  our  own  hands.  Not  a 
man  shall  have  a  vote  unless  he's  American  born,  and  by 
degrees  we'll  get  rid  of  these  men  who  disgrace  us."  "  Are 
not  many  of  your  regiments  composed  of  Germans  and  Irish 
—  of  foreigners,  in  fact?  "  "  Yes,  Sir."  I  did  not  suggest 
to  him  the  thought  which  rose  in  my  mind,  that  these  gen 
tlemen,  if  successful,  would  be  very  little  inclined  to  abandon 
their  rights  while  they  had  arms  in  their  hands,  but  it  oc 
curred  to  me  as  well  that  this  would  be  rather  a  poor  reward 
for  the  men  who  were  engaged  in  establishing  the  Southern 
Confederacy.  The  attempt  may  fail,  but  assuredly  I  have 
heard  it  expressed  too  often  to  doubt  that  there  is  a  deter 
mination  on  the  part  of  the  leaders  in  the  movement  to  take 
away  the  suffrage  from  the  men  whom  they  do  not  scruple 
to  employ  in  fighting  their  battles.  If  they  cut  the  throats 
of  the  enemy  they  will  stifle  their  own  sweet  voices  at  the 
same  time,  or  soon  afterward  —  a  capital  recompense  to 
their  emigrant  soldiers  ! 

The  portion  of  Tennessee  traversed  by  the  railroad  is  not 
very  attractive,  for  it  is  nearly  uncleared.  In  the  sparse 
clearings  were  fields  of  Indian  corn,  growing  amid  black 
ened  stumps  of  trees  and  rude  log  shanties,  and  the  white 
population  which  looked  out  on  us  was  poorly  housed,  at 
least,  if  not  badly  clad.  At  last  we  reached  Corinth.  It 
would  have  been  scarcely  recognizable  by  Mummius  —  even 
if  he  had  ruined  his  old  handiwork  over  again.  This  proud- 


THE    CIVIL    WAR    II*    AMERICA.  187 

ly-named  spot  consisted  apparently  of  a  grog-shop  in  wood, 
and  three  shanties  of  a  similar  material,  with  out-offices  to 
match,  and  the  Aero-Corinth  was  a  grocery  store,  of  which 
the  proprietors  had  no  doubt  gone  to  the  wars,  as  it  was 
shut  up,  and  their  names  were  suspiciously  Milesian.  But, 
if  Corinth  was  not  imposing,  Troy,  which  we  reached  after 
a  long  run  through  a  forest  of  virgin  timber,  was  still  sim 
pler  in  architecture  and  general  design.  It  was  too  new  for 
"  Troja  fait,"  and  the  general  "  fixins  "  would  scarcely  au 
thorize  one  to  say  to  hope  Troja  faerit. 

The  Dardanian  Towers  were  represented  by  a  timber- 
house,  and  Helen  the  Second  —  whom  we  may  take  on  this 
occasion  to  have  been  simulated  by  an  old  lady  smoking  a 
pipe,  whom  I  saw  in  the  verandah  —  could  have  set  them 
on  fire  much  more  readily  than  did  her  interesting  prototype 
ignite  the  City  of  Priam.  The  rest  of  the  place  and  of  the 
inhabitants,  as  I  saw  it  and  them,  might  be  considered  as 
an  agglomerate  of  three  or  four  sheds,  a  Jew  log  huts,  a  saw 
mill,  and  some  twenty  negroes  sitting  on  a  log  and  looking 
at  the  train.  From  Troy  the  road  led  to  a  cypress  swamp, 
over  which  the  engines  bustled,  rattled,  tumbled,  and 
hopped  at  a  perilous  rate  along  a  high  trestlework,  and 
at  last  we  came  to  "  Union  City,"  which  seemed  to  be 
formed  by  great  aggregate  meetings  of  discontented  shav 
ings  which  had  been  whiled  into  heaps  out  of  the  forest 
hard  by.  But  here  was  the  camp  of  the  Confederates,  which 
so  many  of  our  fellow-passengers  were  coming  out  into 
the  wilderness  to  see.  Their  white  tents  and  plank  huts 
gleamed  through  the  green  of  oak  and  elm,  and  hundreds 
of  men  came  out  to  the  platform  to  greet  their  friends,  and 
to  inquire  for  baskets,  boxes,  and  hampers,  which  put  me  in 
mind  of  the  Quartermaster's  store  at  Balaklava.  We  have 
all  heard  of  the  unhappy  medical  officer  who  exhausted  his 
resources  to  get  up  a  large  chest  from  that  store  to  the  camp, 
and  who  on  opening  it,  in  the  hope  of  finding  inside  the  art 
icles  he  was  most  in  need  of,  discovered  that  it  contained  an 
elegant  assortment  of  wooden  legs  ;  but  he  could  not  have 
been  so  much  disgusted  as  a  youthful  warrior  here  who  was 
handed  a  wicker-covered  jar  from  the  luggage  van,  which  he 
*' tapped"  on  the  spot,  expecting  to  find  it  full  of  Bourbon 
whiskey,  or  something  c-qually  good.  He  raised  the  ponder 
ous  vessel  aloft,  ami  took  a  long  pull,  to  the  envy  of  his 
comrades,  and  then  spirting  out  the  fluid,  with  a  hideous 
face,  exclaimed,  "  D ,  &c.  Why,  if  the  old  woman  has 


188  THE    CIYIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA. 

not   sent  me   sirup  !  "     Evidently  no  joke,  for  the  crowd 
around  him  never  laughed  and  gravely  dispersed. 

It  was  fully  two  hours  before  the  train  got  away  from  the 
camp,  leaving  a    vast   quantity    of  good  things   and   many 
ladies,  who  had  come  on  in  the  excursion  train,  behind  them. 
There  were  about  6,600  men  there,  it  was  said  — rude,  big, 
rough  fellows,  with  sprinklings  of  odd  companies,  composed 
of  gentlemen   of  fortune    exclusively.      The    soldiers    who 
were  only  entitled  to  the    name    in    virtue  of  their  carrying 
arms,  their   duty,  and  possibly  their   fighting  qualities,  lay 
under  the  trees  playing  cards,  cooking,  smoking,  or  reading 
the  papers ;  but  the  camp  was  guarded  by  sentries,  some  of 
whom  carried  their  firelocks  under  their  arms  like  umbrellas, 
others  by  the  muzzle  with  the  butt  over  the  shoulder ;  o'ne 
for  ease,  had  stuck  his,  with  the  bayonet  in  the  ground,  up 
right  before  him  ;  others  laid   their  arms   against  the  trees, 
and  preferred  a  sitting   to  an  upright   posture.     In  front  of 
one  camp  there  were  two  brass  fieldpieces,  seemingly  in  good 
order.     Many  of  the  men  had  sporting  rifles  or  plain  muskets. 
There  were  several  boys  of  fifteen  and  sixteen  years  of  age 
among  the  men,  who   could  scarcely  carry  their  arms  for  a 
long  day's  march ;  but  the  Tennessee  and  Mississippi  infan 
try   were   generally    the    materials    of  good    soldiers.     The 
camps  were  not  regularly  pitched,  with  one  exception  ;  the 
tents  were  too  close   together  ;  the   water  is   bad,  and  the 
result   that   a  good  deal  of  measles,   fever,  diarrhoea,   and 
dysentery  prevailed.     One  man  who  came  on  the  train  wa,s 
a  specimen  of  many  of  the  classes  which  fill  the  ranks — a 
tall,  very  muscular,  handsome  man,  with  a  hunter's  eye,  about 
thirty-five   years  of  age,    brawny-shouldered,  brown-faced, 
black-bearded,  hairy-handed  ;  he  had  once  owned  one  hun 
dred  and  ten  negroes  —  equal,   say,  to  £20,000 — but  he 
had  been  a  patriot,  a  lover  of  freedom,  a  fillibuster.     First, 
he  had  gone  off  with  Lopez  to    Cuba,  where  he  was  taken, 
put  in  prison,  and  included  among  the  number  who  received 
grace  ;   next  he  had  gone  off  with  Walker  to  Nicaragua,  but 
in  his  last  expedition  he   fell  into  the  hands    of  the  enemy, 
and  was  only   restored  to  liberty  by  the  British  officer  who 
was  afterward  assaulted  in  New  Orleans  for  the  part  he  took 
in  the  affair.     These  little  adventures  had  reduced  his  stock 
to  five  negroes,  and   to   defend  them  he   took  up  arms,  and 
he  looked  like   one  who  could  use  them.     When  he  came 
from    Nicaragua    he    weighed    only  one  hundred    and    ten 
pounds  —  now  he  was  over  two  hundred  pounds  —  a  splen- 


THE    CIVIL    WAR    IN    AMERICA.  189 

did  betefauve;  and,  without  wishing  him  harm,  may  I  be 
permitted  to  congratulate  American  society  on  its  chance  of 
getting  rid  of  a  considerable  number  of  those  of  whom  he  is 
a  representative  man.  We  learned  incidentally  that  the 
district  wherein  these  troops  are  quartered  was  distinguished 
by  its  attachment  to  the  Union.  By  its  last  vote  Tennessee 
proved  that  there  are  at  least  forty  thousand  voters  in  the 
State  who  are  attached  to  the  United  States  Government. 
At  Columbus  the  passengers  were  transferred  to  a  steamer, 
which  in  an  hour  and  a  half  made  its  way  against  the  stream 
of  the  Mississippi  to  Cairo.  There,  in  the  clear  light  of  the 
summer's  eve,  were  floating  the  Stars  and  Stripes — the 
first  time  I  had  seen  the  flag,  with  the  exception  of  a  glimpse 
of  it  at  Fort  Pickens,  for  two  months.  Cairo  is  in  Illinois, 
on  the  spur  of  land  which  is  formed  by  the  junction  of  the 
Ohio  River  with  the  Mississippi,  and  its  name  is  probably 
well  known  to  certain  speculators  in  England,  who  believed 
in  the  fortunes  of  a  place  so  appropriately  named  and  situ 
ated.  Here  is  the  camp  of  Illinois  troops  under  General 
Prentiss,  which  watches  the  shores  of  the  Missouri  on  the 
one  hand,  and  of  Kentucky  on  the  other.  Of  them,  and  of 
what  may  be  interesting  to  readers  in  England,  I  shall  speak 
in  my  next  letter.  1  find  there  is  a  general  expression  of 
satisfaction  at  the  sentiments  expressed  by  Lord  John  Rus 
sell,  in  the  speech  which  has  just  been  made  down  here,  and 
that  the  animosity  excited  by  what  a  portion  of  the  Ameri 
can  press  called  the  hostility  of  the  Foreign  Minister  to  the 
United  States  has  been  considerably  abated,  although  much 
has  been  done  to  fan  the  anger  of  the  people  into  a  flame, 
because  England^  had  acknowledged  the  Confederate  States 
have  limited  belligerent  rights. 


/       '/E&& 


•• 


, 


